


The Academy of Magics

by Dream_Catcher99



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Female Harry Potter, Harry Potter Has a Twin, Harry Potter Never Went to Hogwarts, James Potter Lives, Lily Evans Potter Lives, M/M, Multi, Sirius Black Never Went to Azkaban, Slow Burn, Wrong Boy-Who-Lived (Harry Potter), curse words
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 57,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Catcher99/pseuds/Dream_Catcher99
Summary: During that Halloween night when Lord Voldemort attacked the Potter family, James and Lily Potter were not home. They had left their twin daughters in the care of Peter Pettigrew, one of their closes friends. Their loyalty was misplaced because that night Pettigrew let his Lord in the house to kill the child that was prophecied to kill him.Things went wrong that night, however, ending with the Dark Lord fleeing along with Pettigrew. No one knew what happened but that night Heather Potter was declared the girl-who-lived. Growing up, James and Lily Potter struggle with maintaining a balance between their two daughters and not treat one better than the other one but Azalea, their second daughter, doesn't want to live under her sister's shadow forever.When Azalea gets the opportunity to get out of her sister's fame and make a name for herself she accepts even if her decision will lead her to the Acadamy of Magics. A school of magic that is known for its secrecy and only accepting the best of the best. There she will discover the power she holds, find life long friends, take control of her destiny... and even make a few enemies along the way.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 294





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. *This disclaimer is for all of the future chapters of this story. 
> 
> This is my first ever story and English is my second language so bare with me for the mistakes I will surely make. I am making the Academy of Magics my own magical school, not sure if someone already came up with that name for a school or it sounds similar to another school another author created, either way, I did not mean to take credit for it- I just didn't know someone had already come up with it. 
> 
> The plot is mostly my own, at least the first couple of chapters I have written but later on, I may smash some ideas from other fanfictions I have read. I will give credit where credit is due so if you think I am taking ideas from other stories just let me know so I can look it up and give them credit.
> 
> Azalea is Female! Harry Potter and I do try to keep bashing to a minium.

Azalea Potter sighed for what appeared to be the 100th time on that day as she absently minded swung from side to side in her desk chair. She would be turning eleven the next day, and there was a tough decision she had to make, a decision that would dictate the rest of her life… alright, so maybe she was overreacting, but it felt like the most crucial decision in her short life, the first of many. 

At eleven, she knew that she would be gaining her Hogwarts’ acceptance letter, but she never imagined that another school would also offer her a spot in their institution. She expected her sister, Heather, to get a lot of letters, and she had been right about that. 

As the girl-who-lived, it was no surprise that magical schools all over the world were offering her a spot in their schools. Having her as a student would be a point of pride, and they would be sure to advertise her to other schools just to rub it on their faces. For the most part, Azalea was glad that she didn’t have to deal with everything that came with being the girl-who-lived. 

She was not interested in fame nor acknowledgment, at least not from the world. She would like a bit more attention from her parents, though. It wasn’t like they neglected her or mistreated her, but most of their attention was on Heather. She understood why, of course, Heather was prophesied to kill the dark lord, Voldemort, in the future. Her sister would probably face a lot of hardship in the future, and their parents worry about her constantly and try to give her the best childhood possible because of it. 

She understood, she did… but she shouldn’t have to, she was only a child herself, and she shouldn’t have to understand why her parents favor one child over the other. There were times that she wanted to scream at her parents and rage at the unfairness of it all, but so far, she had prevented herself from exploding. 

That was what made her pause when she saw the unexpected invitation. She didn’t want to live in her sister’s shadow for the rest of her life. She didn’t want a similar experience at school that she had at home. She could already imagine her classmates asking about her sister and saying how wicked it probably was to have the girl-who-lived as a sister. 

This unexpected invitation to the Academy of Magics was like a gift from above. But she hesitated in accepting it because ever since she could understand, she thought she would be going to Hogwarts. Her parents and uncles had told her and Heather amazing stories of Hogwarts and generations of Potters had gone to Hogwarts. She would be the first one not to go.

On the other hand, Hogwarts may have been a second home for her parents, but their situation was different. What guarantee did she have on finding friends and people that would accept her? Not to mention that her family wasn’t big on tradition, her father had married a muggleborn witch, and one of her uncles was a werewolf, not that she had anything against any magical creature or care about blood statues. 

Making up her mind, she nodded to herself determinedly before grabbing the letter she received six days ago and headed to her father’s office. 

“Come in,” the voice of her father, James Potter, came through the door after she knocked. 

“Azalea! Come in, come in, how can I help you?” Azalea wanted to roll her eyes at her father’s obvious joy of seeing her because she gave him the excuse of not working on the massive pile of paperwork on his desk. 

“Dad, I want to talk to you about something very important,” Azalea informed him, sitting in one of the comfy chairs in front of his desk. 

Her father turned more serious upon hearing her tone, “Sweetheart, you can tell me anything; I promise to listen.” Azalea likes those moments when it was only her and her parents or her and one of her parents because they would pay attention to her. It was when her sister was in the room that their attention would automatically go to Heather.

“I don’t want to go to Hogwarts!” Azalea blurted out and then scowled mentally at having just blurted it out when she had prepared a whole speech for her father. “What I meant to say is that I got an invitation a couple of days ago from the Academy of Magics--” Azalea started over again only to be interrupted by her father.

“Academy of Magics?”

Azalea tilted her head curiously at her father, “Do you know about the Academy of Magics? I searched for it but found nothing in the library books, and you have never mentioned it before.”

“There are eleven major magical schools established worldwide. The ones you have grown up hearing about besides Hogwarts are Beauxbatons, Drumstrang, and Ilvermorny, but those are only four schools out of the eleven. The Academy of Magics is one of the institutions in that list, and just as Beauxbatons is known for accepting light magical creatures, like Veeles, and Drumgstrang is known for their dark arts, the Academy of Magics is known for its secretiveness.”

“So, you can’t tell me anything about it?” Azalea sighed in disappointment. 

“Not completely. I know that they are very picky about who they accept. Like the other schools, most of their students are children from former alumni, so you must have impressed them to have sent you an invitation. After all, no Potter has gone to the Academy of Magics,” James stated proudly, forgetting for the moment that her going to the Academy of Magics would mean not attending Hogwarts, his old alma mater.

“This is what they send me,” Azalea handed her father the elegant invitation.

“Fancy,” James murmured, taking in the thick parchment with golden ink letters and the dark blue envelope that only had his daughter’s name written in cursive in gold ink too and a broken wax-sealed in the form of the school symbol. 

**The Academy of Magics**

**Dear Ms. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you qualify to attend the Academy of Magics. The Academy of Magics is proud to provide an exceptional education for all its students. By the time our students graduate, they have all of the tools to survive _and_ thrive in the real world. Many of our former alumni not only achieve their goals but surpass their expectations. Some noticeable former alumni are: Miranda Goshawk, Aristotle Twelvetrees, Artemisia Lufkin, Mikael Almer, Francisco Silva, Camilla Nilsen, and Lukas Wolf.**

**We provide seven years of education with the opportunity to apprentice under one of our many masters who are experts in their fields after your seven years of schooling. We provide a variety of mixture of magical and nonmagical classes and have hundreds of clubs and extracurricular activities to engage our students and provide a community feeling among our students and staff.**

**Not only do our students engage with each other and the staff members, but also the community that surrounds us. Students volunteer to help in animal shelters, assist the elders, and do community service hours by assisting in the childcare centers in the town surrounding us.**

**We give all of our efforts to provide an outstanding education to our students, so we ask our students to provide us with their full efforts in return. This is why our students are only given two weeks for winter break each year, and their summer consists of 1 ½ month only. We hope you understand that this is a serious commitment, and we realize that this is a hard decision to make, but I can guarantee that you will not regret accepting your place in the Academy of Magics if you do so. Unfortunately, we can’t dwell into further details about the school until you officially become a beloved member of the Academy of Magics.**

**The total cost of one year in the Academy of Magics is 6,000 Galleons. The tuition, however, covers the cost of all materials and supplies the student will be using, their uniform, which will be provided by them once they arrive at the academy, their room, board, and traveling fees. 500 Galleons will be put aside for them for personal use, but parents can provide them with an extra allowance. At the end of the year, the 500 Galleons will be returned to the student personally.**

**If you wish to attend but need financial help, you can check the box provided for you at the end of this letter _before_ you sign this letter, which acts as a legal binding saying you will attend our school. If you sign and decide not to attend, later on, you will have to pay a fee of 3000 Galleons. **

**The term starts on September 1st, and we must have a reply by no later than July 31st. To accept your place in the Academy of Magics, you must sign at the bottom of this letter on the line provided for you, along with providing a drop of blood willingly. A second line is provided for your guardian to sign, confirming your acceptance. The letter will glow golden to indicate your confirmation on your attendance on September 1st, and we will mail you the standard packet provided for each first-year student, which you shall receive no later than two days after accepting your invitation.**

**If you do not wish to accept your place in the Academy of Magics, you can tear this letter or simply leave it blank until after the 31st of July. At 12:00 AM on August 1st, your letter will glow red, indicating that we have confirmed you have declined your place in the Academy of Magics.**

**We hope to see you among the first-year batch of students this year, but we wish you the best in your future endeavors even if you don’t become a member of the Academy of Magics.**

  
  


**Sincerely,**

**_Athena Castellanos_ **

**Headmistress of the Academy of Magics**

  
  
  
  


James had whistled at the names of former students from the Academy of Magics. Miranda Goshawk was a well-known author in magical theory all over the magical world. Aristotle Twelvetrees was a very sought after warder- he constructed the best wards across the globe. Still, the price for his service would make even Lucius Malfoy blanch, and Artemisia Lufkin was a renowned healer.

After the Halloween attack, they searched for answers, trying to find someone who could try to tell them what happened that night and what power Heather had that manifested that night. Even with their new fame, they still had to wait two years for their appointment, or at least at first, they thought they had to wait for two years, but they got a letter from her clinic forwarding their appointment, so they only had to wait seven months. Healer Lufkin was very sought after, so it took a long time to meet her. 

Their meeting did not go as planned, however. They travel to Australia, where she was located for their appointment only for Healer Lufkin to tell them that Heather’s scar in her forehead had only a bit of dark magic residue. After she took it out without a problem right in front of her, she gave them a prescribed cream that they applied for two weeks every night, and Heather’s scar disappeared completely. Healer Lufkin checked her over, conducting many tests but found nothing of the extraordinary power Heather had shown that night they were attacked. 

Healer Lufkin concluded that they had a very healthy baby with a bit above the average magical core. James and Lily had been relieved, if not a bit confused about what she concluded. Still, James got the impression that Healer Lufkin was disappointed in having found nothing that indicated that Heather was spectacular. When they came back, they felt more relaxed, mostly when the scar finally disappeared from Heather’s forehead. They stopped traveling to different healers trying to find answers, which they were glad because it meant they stopped leaving Azalea behind in Sirius and Remus’ care. 

Mikael Almer, Francisco Silva, and Camilla Nilsen were well-respected diplomats. They were the representatives in the International Confederation of Wizards from Sweden, Brazil, and Norway. Not to mention that Lukas Wolf was the current Chancellor of Germany, and by how much the public liked him, he was probably going to be in office for a while. 

James frowned when he read about how little time Azalea would spend with them if she went there. He could just imagine the workload children were given with the prominent students they had produced and how it would demand a lot of their time, but he believed that children also should have fun and play; it shouldn’t be all work and no play.

He mentally winced when he saw how much the tuition cost. It wasn’t something they could not afford, but there was a massive difference from Hogwarts’ tuition. He was already calculating the amount he would have to put away, counting her allowance. 

The date caught most of his attention, however. They had to decide by tomorrow, and he would have liked a bit more time to think it over. But first, there was something he had to ask, “Do you want to go? Your mom and I always assume that both you and your sister would be going to Hogwarts, that that was what you both wanted.”

It went unsaid, but Azalea knew that he was referring more towards Heather than her because they never thought she would receive an invitation from somewhere else. Azalea didn’t blame them since she had been surprised herself at receiving a different option from Hogwarts. 

“I do, I gave it a lot of thought, and I want to go,” Azalea said earnestly, widening her eyes pleadingly.

“Azalea, you know the money is not a problem, and we want you to get the best education possible, whether it is Hogwarts or the Academy of Magics. But if you do attend the Academy of Magics, we will barely see you, a total of two months in a year is not much time.” James didn’t like the prospect of sending his daughter into a new school and not being able to see her so often. What if there was an emergency and Azalea got hurt and he could not see her, or will the school even notify him?

“Dad, I know you and mom and Padfoot and Moony have raised us hearing heart-warming stories about Hogwarts and how it became your home, but your circumstances were different. Everyone knows who Heather Potter is, and everyone will know me as her sister. They will probably try to be my friends only to get close to Heather or ask me hundreds of questions about her. I will always be in Heather's shadow, and I don’t want that. If I go to the Academy of Magics, no one will just assume I am Heather Potter’s little sister. I will be Azalea Potter, a normal student, and I will get to be whoever I want, instead of getting saddle with the title of the girl-who-lived’s little sister.”

James sighed at hearing his daughter’s words. No matter how painful they were, he could not deny their truth. They had tried to keep their whole family out of the limelight, but it had been impossible. He and Lily had very public jobs; they work for the ministry, after all, so everyone knew how they look, and even if they tried to keep Heather from the public, she was well known too. Reporters always seem to get pictures of her, and James and Lily couldn’t keep her locked up in their home all of the time. 

The least seen Potter was Azalea. Azalea was an avid reader and between her and Lily the Potter library kept on having to be expanded every year. She spends most of her time reading rather than wanting to go out to play with other children. James knew that was probably because the children were more awed of Heather and wanted to play with her so Azalea was usually forgotten. 

He had a better time bonding with Heather because she reminded him of his younger self. Heather was full of energy and was a very sociable child while Azalea was more shy and reclusive. It pained James to see one of his daughters look so isolated, he tried to find a mutual interest to bond with her and he tried to get her more out of her shell. 

He was half successful, Azalea had a love for flying and while she was not very interested in quidditch itself James would take what he could. She was an amazing flyer and had given James many mini heart-attacks with the stunts she pulled off. James could see how she would be a perfect seeker if she ever wanted to play quidditch.

James had also learned that his daughter wasn’t shy, she was just a quiet person. Azalea just took more after Lily than James which James finally understood after deciding to spend a whole day with her, only the two of them. She actually reminded him of Remus, Remus had a silent inner strength and would turn ferociously if one of them were under attack, letting more of his wolf out, but for the rest of the time, he was mild-mannered.

James loved both of his daughters equally, but he worried more about Heather because Voldemort was not dead and when he regains his powers again he is going to come after Heather. James had been relieved that they had so many years of peace and only hoped they would have at least another decade of peace, at least Heather would be 21 then and hopefully more prepared to face him off. 

But just because he was worried about Heather didn’t mean that he also didn’t worry about Azalea either, only his concerns for Azalea were more common parent concerns. Sending her to the Academy of Magics would mean barely seeing her in a year for seven years _at least_ but it would mean she would be far away from danger, away from Voldemort. 

“You are not just the girl-who-lived’s little sister, sweetheart. You are Azalea Potter and one day everyone will know your name if you want it to whether you become a politician, healer, warder, curse-breaker, or even a scholar... But you are right, just because Hogwarts became a second home for me it doesn’t mean it will become for you. Let me talk with your mom first about it before we make any decisions,” James came to a decision. 

“Alright,” Azalea agreed easily enough. She had brought the matter to her dad and pleaded her case and now all she could do was wait for her parents to reach a decision. 

She made her way to her bedroom, leaving the letter with her father. She was sure that her parents would end up agreeing and the more she thought about going to this mysterious school the more she became excited. There was no point in daydreaming about it, however, so she picked up the book she was almost finished- Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms. 

She was very interested in the study of Runology because it was everywhere. To create new spells you needed to know ruins and arithmancy, the same could be said if you wanted to become a wand lord, and not to forget warding. She didn’t understand why Hogwarts didn’t make it a required class along with Arithmancy, she hoped the Academy of Magics considered the subject more important than Hogwarts did, but either way, she was already planning on taking the class no matter what. 

The hard part of studying Runology was knowing which ruin could interact with which one. You had to know what you wanted your chain to do and know what ruins would go together and give you a stronger effect, if that is what you were going for. The more you practice and dwell into Runology the easier it became to just instinctively know, at least that is how Azalea felt about it. 

The more tedious part of Runology was memorizing all of the ruins that already existed. You could create new ones but that wasn’t done too often, to create new runic scriptures you needed to be knowledgeable in arithmancy and alchemy which Azalea was not an expert on. She estimated that it would take her decades to get to that point because she would have to become first a master in alchemy, arithmancy, and Runology. 

Thankfully Azalea had a head start in Runology, she had the basics down. She had memorized as many ruins as she could, she couldn’t say that she knew all of them because there were just too many in the world and every year there were new ancient runes being discovered. But at least she knew the most common ones which were a total of 3,798. Those 3,798 runes were a combination of the languages- Latin, Chinese, Greek, and Arabic. 

Besides studying runes she liked to study arithmancy, potions, herbology, and arithmancy, basically any subject that didn’t have to deal with performing magic. It wasn’t because she couldn’t perform magic but because she was… afraid of her magic. She knew she wasn’t normal because magic felt more sentiment to her than to anyone else. She tried searching for an answer which led her to reading a lot of magical theory books but she didn’t find anything that explained her connection to her magic. 

“Hey, I would ask what you are doing but I already know I would find you reading a book,” Heather’s exasperated voice broke Azalea from her troubled thoughts. 

“I could have been reading a fashion magazine,” Azalea half-heartedly protested as her sister pluck herself in her bed. 

Heather actually snorted, “please the day you willingly pick a fashion magazine is the day Ron declares his undying love for everything Slytherin.”

This time it was Azalea’s time to snort. Ron Weasley held a big grudge against Slytherins and everything Slytherin related, his whole family were Gryffindors so maybe that is where he got it from. Merlin knew their father and Padfoot took Gryffindor loyalty to an extreme but thankfully they had Remus and their mother to even things out. 

“I am not that bad,” Azalea denied the accusation. “I dress fashionable, don't I?”

“Only because me and dad pick your wardrobe,” Heather scoffed playfully as he laid back on Azalea’s bed, taking all of the space available and not caring about it since Azalea was sitting in the chair in front of her desk. 

Weirdly enough it was Heather and their father who were the more fashionable members of their family. Azalea took after their mother who, while not interested in looking amazing all of the time, cared about looking presentable. Lily had grown up in a middle-income family so they couldn’t really waste money on dressing up in the latest trends and as a grown-up, even now that she had money to throw away, she still kept her habit. All Lily cared about was that her clothes were not too revealing and that she didn’t look shabby. 

James on the other hand grew up spoiled since his parents had him at a later age and he was their only child. He was used to looking the part of coming from a rich family and that habit had not faded as he aged, something that he seemed to have passed onto Heather. Azalea was fine with being her sister’s dressing doll since Heather always kept in mind Azalea’s preferences.

“Dad and I,” Azalea automatically corrected her sister but Heather just waved her off, used to Azalea always correcting her. They did not have a close bond as the Weasley twins had but they were still close which was why Azalea didn’t know how to tell Heather that she wasn’t going to Hogwarts.

“Heather... I have to tell you something important,” Azalea started hesitantly but continued on when Heather looked expectantly at her. “I don’t want to go to Hogwarts and I talk to dad about it because I got an invitation from the Academy of Magics and after thinking about it for days I decided that I want to attend the Academy of Magics instead.”

“What- why- When did you-,” Heather spluttered not knowing what question to ask first. 

Thankfully Azalea understood what Heather was trying to ask, “I got their invitation a couple of days ago. I never heard about the Academy of Magics so I did some research-” here Heather rolled her eyes at her because she was so predictable. “-But I didn’t find anything on it. It’s a real school though because dad has heard about it. He said that they are known for their secretary so that was why I probably couldn’t find anything in the books. Dad is going to talk to mom about it but I am very sure that they are letting me go. I know we assume we were both going to go to Hogwarts but… when Hogwarts students realize I am your sister all they will want to talk about is you. You will be surrounded by a lot of fans and you won't have trouble finding friends while I will struggle a lot,” Azalea ended saying softly, looking down at her hands.

“That’s not true,” Heather protested. “They will focus on me only until they realize how scarily smart you are then all they will talk about is you.”

Heather tried to sound encouraging but she couldn’t keep the tint of envy from her tone. Heather wasn’t stupid but she just wasn’t as smart as Azalea and she knew that she would never be as smart as Azalea.

Azalea could read for hours, her mind could focus on one topic for hours while Heather’s mind could focus on a topic for 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes if she really tried but then her mind would wander. Azalea also had a talent for multitasking and organizing her time so that she was always being productive. 

Heather knew people fawn over her because they thought she destroyed a dark lord when she was just a baby but sometimes she doubts their beliefs. Between the two of them, Azalea seemed to be more fitted for the job because shouldn’t the destined heroine be smart? 

The only reason Heather kept on doubting and going back and forth on her thinking was the fact that Azalea didn’t appear to be magically gifted. Heather was the one who had a lot of bouts of accidental magic through their childhood while their parents thought Azalea may have been born a squib since she hadn’t produced accidental magic by the age of seven. Azalea actually performed her first accidental magic when she was nine and it had happened to save Heather from having boiling water splashed on her. 

Heather had been throwing a tantrum (much to her embarrassment now) because her parents were refusing to throw her a large birthday party. It just so happened that the confrontation took place in the kitchen because her mother was baking cupcakes with Azalea and his father was reading the newspaper, keeping them company. They had decided a while ago that instead of having a birthday party they were going to go on a vacation for two weeks to Mount Hutt, New Zealand. 

However, Heather had changed her mind because her other friends had badge her on and on about having a party. She always worried about what people thought about her and didn’t want to appear uncool to her friends so she wanted to throw a large birthday party instead of going on vacation even though it had been her idea to go to Mount Hutt in New Zealand, to begin with. 

Her magic had acted to her anger and the pot with boiling water that her mother had on the stove had burst up and most of the water would have landed on her but Azalea had covered them in a blue shield, acting faster than either of their parents. Heather had not protested after that accident and in the end, she was glad they had gone on their vacation because it had been lots of fun. 

Their parents had been thrilled to see Azalea’s accidental magic and they had celebrated it with Padfoot and Moony. Heather didn’t know their parents were worried about Azalea’s magic until after that accident when they looked so relieved. 

“I think it’s best if we go to separate schools, Heather,” Azalea admitted, having heard the envy in Heather’s tone. “We can still keep in touch with letters but if we don’t go to the same school we won’t have to worry about competing against each other.” 

Heather had more friends than Azalea had but Azalea was her confidant. Heather could spill all of her fears, dreams, and hopes into Azalea and she never made fun of her or teased her. Azalea was like her diary except much better because she would give her wise advice in return and Heather got jealous just imagining other children realizing how amazing her sister was and taking her away from her. 

“I don’t want to compete against you,” Heather whined, she already knew that there was no way she could academically compete against Azalea.

“I am going to the Academy of Magics, Heather,” Azalea stated firmly.

“What if you forget about me? You will have so many friends and you will be so busy with them and studying that you will forget to write to me,” Heather blurted out her fear and the real reason behind her envy. 

“Heather, you are my twin and I will never forget you- no matter how many friends we have. You have tons of friends, not to mention hundreds of fans and yet I am still your best friend and no matter what, you will be mine,” Azalea smiled softly at her sister. 

Heather actually burst into tears and launched herself into Azalea’s arm. They didn’t spend every minute together like Fred and George Weasley but at the end of the day, they would sneak into the bed of the other just to talk about nothing and everything. 

Azalea would mostly talk about what she had learned that day while Heather would gossip about the people she had to hang out with or about fashion tips that both knew Azalea would never follow. They remembered old memories and laughed at the silly things they did and talked about the future and what they wanted to do. Azalea wasn’t sure what she wanted to do but she thought about becoming a Master in Runes often enough.

Heather on the other hand wanted to go into the fashion business, she wanted to bring new trends to the magical world and be a worldwide name because of it. She knew much thought she would become an Auror like her father or a Charm Master like her mother and worked in the charm division in the Ministry but those jobs didn’t appeal to her. 

“Twin promise?” Heather asked, giving Azalea her puppy dog eyes. 

Not that she needed to base on the gentle smile Azalea was giving her. “Twin promise,” she agreed, nodding. Twin promise was something they had come up with, it was a lot like a pinky promise and when they swore on a twin promise then they knew that they could not go back on their word. 

* * *

That night Azalea was getting ready for bed when she was summoned to her father’s office. She nervously peeked inside to see her mother and father already there waiting for her. 

“Mom, Dad, did you come to a decision?” Azalea asked nervously, taking a seat.

“Your dad and I have talked about it and we decided that we would be the worst parents ever if we didn’t allow you to go. The Academy of Magics is certainly a prestigious school and if you want to go then who are we to discourage you from learning? That said, we expect to receive at least one letter each week from you missy,” her mother tried to look sternly but failed because her eyes were a bit too shiny and she looked like she would start crying any minute from now.

“I promise,” Azalea quickly agreed, not wanting to upset her mother further. 

“Come here princess, let’s finish making this official,” James gestured to Azalea to come closer and sign the letter by handing her a quill. 

Azalea looked down at where she had to sign and saw that her father had already signed. She took a deep breath and signed where she needed to and poke her finger to let a drop of blood drop on the square marked in the letter. The three of them held their breath waiting for the golden glow- one-second pass, then two, then four, and then the letter was engulfed in a golden light. Azalea had been worried that she would not be able to notice the golden light but it was too bright to miss it. 

“Now all I have to wait is for the school to send more information and paperwork I have to fill out.” Azalea’s calm and cheerful tone seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back because her mother burst into tears. Azalea and James shared a panicked look between them before Azalea tried to calm her mother by giving her a hug except that Lily clung to her which was something that she had not expected. 

She threw a pleading look at her father but he only looked amusingly at the pair of them. Azalea sighed, resigned to having to wait it out. This was the second time that day she had to deal with a crying witch but she was used to seeing Heather crying because Heather was overdramatic about everything. But when her mother cried, Azalea panicked because her mother wasn’t one to easily cry and didn’t want to see her in tears, especially if it was because of her.

One thing she and her father share, the panic they felt when they saw her mother crying. While her father had years of practice he still didn’t know what to do with a crying witch and Azalea reasoned that if her father hadn’t learned how to handle a crying witch after so many years then there was no hope for her either.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is another chapter, not sure how well I did.  
> For some reason, I kept on bringing up pots and pans and I wanted to change it but in the end, I decided to keep it as it was. 😂

When Azalea woke up on the morning of the first of August she woke up to find a beautiful shiny white box with gold lining on her desk. Her first thought was that it was a late birthday gift but she had received gifts from everyone she knew yesterday.

It took her sleepy mind some seconds to remember that her letter from the Academy of Magics also appeared overnight and that she was expecting a package from them. When her mind caught up with the information she bolted up from her bed and rushed to check the box out.

In her eager state, she got tangled up in her sheets, however, and ended up falling off of her bed. She groaned and could only be thankful that no one saw her less then graceful moment. 

“Merlin, it’s real gold!” Azalea exclaimed upon tracing her name that was written at the top of the box in pretty cursive gold. So far it seemed that her father was getting his Galleon’s worth. 

She opened the box eagerly and the first thing she laid her eyes on was another official letter from the school. 

**Dear Miss Potter,**

**Congratulations on accepting your place in the Academy of Magics. As you are now formally a student of the Academy of Magics we are at liberty to grant you more information about this great institution. Here is a bit of some general background information every student coming to the Academy of Magics should know:**

**Our school was founded in 1621 by Isadora Pallas who was centuries ahead of her generation. She believed there was still so much to learn about magic and she desired to build a place where the brightest minds could be nurtured and encouraged to pursue their knowledge of magic for the sake of knowledge itself. In the Academy of Magic we are proud to teach our students the rules that applied to magic and then encourage them to question them… break them… and then revise them again.**

**Our founder created the land where our beloved school stands today. We are considered a nation of our own and we are ruled by a body of law that consists of 7 official members. There is a book full of all of our laws and punishments included in this box. This law book contains all of the information every citizen knows so you will not be at a disadvantage, be sure to read it and understand it because ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking the law. Keep in mind that this book is key only to you therefore no one will be able to see the contents of the book besides you.**

**We also included the school manual which lists all of the school rules. Please read over them carefully. Aside from the manual, we included your class schedule for the next four months. For the first two years of your education in the Academy of Magics you will be given a set schedule that every typical first-year and second-year follow. Bear in mind that your schedule may change if you test out of any subject in the first week of class or if there are exceptional circumstances that pertain to only you.**

**Classes are considered by level and not by year. For example, the Academy of Magics requires all of its students to complete the seven levels in the field of Herbology. In your first year, you will complete level one, level two, and level three of knowledge in Herbology. In your second year, you will complete level four and level five of knowledge in Herbology. After your second year, you can decide when you wish to finish level sixth and seventh. If in your third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh year and if you wish to take the class at the beginning of the year, the middle, or the end of the school year.**

**Professors know the topics that each level of a certain subject must cover, if you wish to study outside of class to move up a level or skip a level in the middle of the year in a certain subject you are welcome to make inquiries to your professors about it. In the school manual, you can find the required classes the Academy of Magics requires from you and how many levels you have to complete in order to graduate.**

**The school year is divided into three semesters. The first semester is from September to December, the second semester starts in January and ends in March. The third semester takes place in April and goes up to July just before the start of summer vacation starts. Students, in addition, have the opportunity to stay for their summer vacation to study up to two subjects in the 6 weeks. You will be taught in 6 weeks the course work that would usually be taught in the expansion of three to four months, therefore you should be prepared for a more intensive learning experience.**

**We also offer an exchange student program during the summer. Families volunteer to take on a student for the summer. Students get to experience a different culture and see how some of their own peers live. This option is very limited and therefore we can’t guarantee a place, more information will be distributed to the students about their summer options when the date gets closer to summer break.**

**There is a form included in case you wish to house a student during the summer break. Please keep in mind that you and your family will be interviewed intensively due to our concern for our students’ safety. Do not make a hasty decision, you have until December 18 to submit a form.**

**Also included in your box is a compiled list of what you** **_must_ ** **bring and suggestions on what you should bring. While we provide most materials, we do not provide a wand, therefore, please make sure to purchase one.**

**Students in the first and second year are not allowed to bring pets. Owls do not reach us hence you are not allowed to bring an owl either. Inside the box you will find a shrink dark green transparent box, once unshrink the box is 2 meters in length, 2 feet in width, and 1 foot in height. If you can find an empty spot in your wall you can push it through and it would work as a pull and push cabinet, no magic is required to stall it and it will continue to be activated until you are no longer a student in the Academy of Magic.**

**This box will work as a mailbox. Your parents or family members can add stuff to the box from their side and activate the small rune carve in it _after_ having pushed it close. The items in the box will be immediately transported to a similar box in your dorm. To send items back you only have to follow the same procedure but to the box in your dorm. Important school information will be sent to your mailbox in your dorm so it is important to get in the habit of checking it. **

**To try the function of the box we ask that you send us your measurements for your uniform. Once you have your measurements written down please send it as soon as possible to avoid any problems.**

**There are a few extra pieces of information included in the box such as a list of clubs and how you will be getting to school but I will allow you to discover all of that on your own.**

**Sincerely,**

**Stefen Richter**

**Head Deputy**

  
  


Thankfully her family had a late night because Heather’s birthday was celebrated with a Ministry Ball so Azalea had time to go over everything that was inside the box. 

The first thing she took out was the law book just to put it on her desk to read later. Her school manual went right on top of the law book seconds later, when she came upon her class schedule she eagerly opened it- only to promptly choke. 

She was a bookworm. She knew that and had even come to like the label, but looking at her schedule- she knew she was going to practically live in the library. 

Every day her classes started at 7:15 in the morning and she had classes all day until 5:50 P.M. with only a one hour break for lunch from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM. There were 10 or 15 minutes breaks in between classes but that was barely a break! She really loves learning just like the next scholar but even this schedule seemed too much for her- and that was coming from the girl who spent everyday reading.

She was glad to see Arithmancy in her schedule though. Something that surprised her was to see muggle subjects in her schedule like math, Language Arts, and History. While Azalea had gone to a muggle school until this year, Heather had gone until she was eight then she had thrown a fit until their parents agreed to pull her out and allowed her to attend private tutoring with her friends, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones. 

There were other things that confused her, however. Astronomy was listed as a morning class but Astronomy was about studying the stars and constellations which could only be studied at night but they had the class in the morning.

They also didn’t list the traditional classes like Charms, Transfiguration, or Defense Against the Dark Arts. There was a class listed as Magical Theory, however. Azalea was glad there were some traditional classes listed like Potions, Herbology, and Magical History or she would have felt like she was learning Kawishana (one of the rarest languages in the world) while everyone else was being taught English!

She didn’t study her schedule too closely because she wanted to get through everything that was in her box, she would just go back later to read it over more carefully.

She found the huge list of activities included and some immediately popped out to her like horseback riding, Runes club, and Cooking Club. She couldn’t wait to sign up for as many as she was allowed to. 

She also found the list with suggestions on what she _should_ bring and what she _had_ to bring. She found it odd that pots and pans were in the suggestion list and for a moment she thought the school was going to make them cook their own food. That was a horrible idea, not only because they didn’t have time with the schedule they were handed out, but also because she didn’t know how to cook. She knew how to bake some simple things but cooking was a completely different story. 

She took out the shrink box and made a mental note to give it to her father later on so he could put it on an empty space in one of the walls in his office. The last thing she took out was a spectacular diamond teardrop necklace.

She could feel the magic radiating from it and knew that it had to be a portkey. The string was made of a material she did not know but it definitely felt strong even if it looked delicate. Looking at it closer she realized the string was made out of multiple thinner strings and together they were braided together to make rune patterns, she couldn’t distinguish any of them but she knew a rune when she saw one. 

She read the note that came with it- apparently, the necklace served as her portkey to school. Unlike the law book, the diamond needed a drop of her blood to be key to her _and_ to be activated. She didn’t hesitate to follow the directions that came with it, but it did not escape her notice that this was the second time the school approved of blood magic being performed. 

Blood magic was banned in the UK and other countries, she didn't know any in particular but she knew there were other countries that banned blood magic. Hogwarts hadn’t taught blood magic for 250 years now, give or take. She was going to have to look in her school manual to see what classes were offered in the Academy of Magics.

“Miss Azalea, brunch is being served at the dining table. Your family is eating now, Meepsy came to tell Miss Azalea.” Growing up with a house-elf had gotten Azalea used to hearing the sudden pop that was accompanied with a house-elf apparating and wasn’t easily startled anymore.

“Thank you Meepsy, I will be down in a minute,” Azalea politely replied. Azalea had spent quite a lot of time in the watch of Meepsy when she was younger and they had developed a closer bond because of it. As a young impressionable child, she would come home from school and tell Meepsy all about what she had learned as she ate a light snack to keep her full until dinner time. 

When she was around 6 years old she had gotten in her mind the idea of teaching Meepsy how to speak correctly and read and write. For the most part, she had succeeded, and seeing Meepsy improve had given her mom the idea of looking into more house-elf rights. Her mother wasn’t too happy with getting a house-elf from the very beginning but she had no other choice when Padfoot and Moony could not look after Azalea when they had to be away with Heather for one reason or another. 

“Good morning,” Azalea greeted when she entered the room. Both of her parents and her sister were still in their PJs, despite the time. 

“Good morning sweetheart,” her father was the first to greet her. His favorite nickname for her was ‘sweetheart’ or ‘fawn’ while Heather possessively claimed the nickname ‘princess’ for herself -her mother of course got the nickname ‘my queen’ and ‘lily-flower’ much to her mother's fond exasperation.

“Good morning honey,” her mother greeted cheerfully with a smile. Her mother was a morning person, much to the disgruntled of the rest of the family. 

Azalea snickered silently when her sister tried to greet her but ended up yawing sleepily instead. She knew Heather would be horrified with her appearance if she had looked at herself in the mirror but she was still too tired from yesterday evidently to care about her appearance.

“So how was last night?” Azalea asked her sister, not because she was really interested in the party but because she knew Heather would not let her hear the end of it if she didn’t ask.

At her question Heather perked up immediately, “It was amazing! There were so many people there and I met most of my future classmates _and_ their families. I already knew Susan, Hannah, Ron, Neville, Ernie, Millicent, Daphne, and Tracy but I also met Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, Anthony Goldstein, Trevor Boot, Lavender Brown, and a pair of Indian twins -Padma and Parvati Patil…” 

It always amazes Azalea how her sister could remember faces and names so well but couldn’t remember Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration. “... of course Daphne and Tracey were not invited. I can just imagine their faces, missing the event of the year-”

“Heather, that is enough,” their mother sternly warned Heather. 

Heather met Daphne and Tracey when they were around nine years old. She was delighted to make new friends but after three months of knowing each other Heather came home from a playdate at Daphne’s house and declared that she did not want to be friends with Daphne anymore.

No matter how much everyone asked Heather what had happened she would not speak about the matter. Azalea had the suspicion that maybe Heather felt threatened by Daphne’s presence because Daphne gained a lot of attention herself for being a well mannered, intelligent, and beautiful child. 

Of course, Tracey was Daphne’s friend first so when Heather made her pick between the two of them Tracey picked Daphne. Ever since then, Heather has made sure to not invite Daphne and Tracey to any of her parties. 

“They don’t matter anyway,” Heather scoffed before changing the topic. “I felt like a princess last night! My dress was the most beautiful dress last night in the ballroom and I actually got to dance a bit this time. There was this huge cake that was 11 tiers long and it was pink and glittery and delicious! Of course, the mountain of presents was double- no, triple the height of the cake. I-”

“Heather, go see who is here,” James cut her off before Heather could continue to brag about her birthday part. Through the wards, James had felt the floo being activated.

Azalea preferred to pretend to be oblivious to the uncomfortable faces in her parents' faces. Everyone knew Heather was spoiled but their parents didn’t like it when Azalea had to listen to Heather brag and brag about it, it made them feel terrible. Azalea never told them that it was useless because Heather would make sure to tell her everything in more detail later on when her parents were not present.

Heather didn’t do it out of spite. She was sincerely just very excited about all of the new things she got and as her sister, she wanted to tell Azalea everything, which was why Azalea didn’t mind listening to her rambles. 

“But dad-” Heather started to whine but James cut her off.

“Now, Heather.”

With a huff, she got up and stomped out of the room to make her point that she was not happy about being ordered around. Azalea didn’t mind listening to Heather brag about her big fabulous parties or about all of the presents that she got. While Heather got quantity, Azalea got qualitative. She may not receive as many presents as Heather but her presents were very thoughtful and useful.

Her father usually gave her Potter heirlooms, like the hair clip that had been in the family for 300 years, or the pearl earrings that had belonged to her grandmother. Those gifts would have been more suited for Heather since she was the girly-girl out of the two of them but Azalea appreciated the sentiment either way. This year she had really appreciated her gift as her father had gifted her the invisibility cloak. 

She didn’t expect to receive it because it’s supposed to pass down to the oldest child which in this case would be Heather. Her father had decided to give it to her because he thought she would need it more than Heather since she was going to go somewhere he could not reach her and somewhere he knew nothing about. It had been a really touching gift. Azalea would of course not speak about it to Heather or she would throw a tantrum as big as Hogwarts.

Her mother on the other hand liked to enchant stuff for her. Last year it had been a brush that easily untangled her hair and this year her mother had enchanted a trunk for her to take to school. 

It was better than the ones you could buy in Diagon Alley. This one had four large compartments and one smaller one. Of course, the largest compartment was actually her own personal library. It would hold up to 2,300 books! 

Heather on the other hand got a trunk from their mother too. Her largest compartment was for her clothes though. It was charmed so that her clothes would not get wrinkled which Heather completely adored. 

“Uncle Padfoot and Uncle Moony came to visit!” Heather announced cheerfully, forgetting all about her previous mood. 

“Moony, Padfoot!” Azalea squealed as she practically threw herself at both men who thankfully were prepared and caught her. 

“Flower petal!” Sirius exclaimed back as he took her from Remus’ arms and spun her around. 

“You are going to make her dizzy,” Remus warned his husband but he had a fond smile on his face so he didn’t appear as stern as he wanted to appear.

“Nonsense,” Sirius denied, coming to a stop. Azalea’s crazy laugh only helps prove his point. “So, what are we having today?” Sirius asked, making himself comfortable as he looks at the table full of delicious goods.

“If I didn’t know any better I would say you only come to my home to eat Meepsy’s cooking,” James raised an eyebrow at his best friend.

“What can I say? I miss house-elf cooking,” Sirius said with no shame.

“You have Kreacher!” 

Sirius actually froze with his spoon of eggs midair and looked comically horrified at James’ suggestion, “Kreacher?! That elf is more likely to poison my food if he could but since he _can’t_ I wouldn’t put it past him to spit on it out of spite.”

“Last time we asked him to cook, he over seasoned everything,” Remus added, wrinkling his nose just remembering the awful taste. 

“Then why don’t you get a new one- ow!” James winces rubbing his shin under the table. “Lily-flower,” James started to whine which let everyone know who had kicked him under the table, but a look from his wife brought him to a stop. “I- I mean, why don’t you- um, acquire… yes, acquire the service of another house-elf?” James amended his first question so it didn’t sound like house-elves were viewed as property to appease his wife.

Azalea looked at Heather from across the table and together they both burst out laughing at the same time. It was a recurring argument in their household and their father always forgot to correct his wording which always got him in trouble with their mother. 

“Now, why would I do that Prongs when I can just come to your house to eat delicious food for free?” Sirius grinned at James tauntingly. Remus and Lily share an insufferable look between the two of them. Honestly, their respective partners were overgrown children.

“I knew there was a reason my food bill was so high. Honestly, Padfoot you better be careful or sooner than you expect you will have a full belly and Moony may start looking for another partner,” James taunted him back.

“Take that back you!” Sirius shouted outrageously, he looked completely indignant by the mere suggestion. 

“Make me.” James should not have said that because the next second Sirius was chasing him around the table. 

“James! Sirius! Sit down, you are both going to break something or hurt yourselves. You are not 11 anymore,” Lily scolded them and with a combination of a glare between Lily and Remus, both James and Sirius drop on their chairs again.

“It seems to me you both better watch your health,” Remus dryly told them as both men panted after only chasing each other around the table a couple of times. Azalea and Heather quietly giggle from their spot in the dining table, not wanting to bring the adults' attention to themselves.

“You will still love me even with a potbelly, right Moony?” Sirius asked his husband, giving him the puppy dog eyes. 

Remus sighed but looked fondly at his husband, “Yes Sirius, I will always love you- potbelly, grey hair, wrinkles, and all.”

“Lily-flower you will always love me, right? Even if I lose my handsome looks?” James asked his wife, completely ignoring the conversation between his two friends. 

“Yes, James. I will always love you, even if you do lose your good looks.” Lily looked more amused by his antics but she leaned forward to give James a loving kiss anyways. 

“Eww!”

“Ugh.” Azalea and Heather both made faces at seeing the two couples kiss lovingly. Azalea had no interest in boys and surprisingly Heather was still not showing an interest in boys even though she was very girly… to James’ immense relief.

“I would like to see what you have to say when you both have boyfriends,” Lily teased.

“Which won’t happen until you are 30… maybe 40- hopefully 60 years old,” James was quick to butt in the conversation.

“No luck there Jamie-boy, with Heather’s looks and popularity she will have a boyfriend by 13,” Sirius sing-song.

“Like Azalea is going to be any different,” James sarcastically shot back at his friend. It was an unfortunate fact that James had two beautiful daughters.

While Heather inherited Lily's red wavy hair but it was a shade darker thanks to James' genes, she had inherited James' warm hazel eyes, however. Azalea, on the other hand, had inherited James' black mess of a hair that was a pain to untangle but once it was done it looked beautiful with Lily's breathtaking emerald eyes.

“Absolutely not,” Sirius growled defensively. While Sirius loved both girls dearly, but he saw Azalea as his own daughter because of how much time they spent together. 

When James and Lily had to go away for one reason or another with Heather, it was Sirius and Remus who watched over Azalea. It also didn’t help that Azalea’s middle name was Venus, named after the planet Venus and following his family’s tradition. James had done it in honor of their friendship since they were not only best friends but brothers in everything but blood. 

“Besides, Azalea is going to an all-girls school,” Sirius added smugly. Silence followed his words and everyone looked surprised, even Remus which meant that this was new news for him too. “What?”

“Sirius, how did you figure out that the Academy of Magics is an all-girls school?” Lily was the person who asked.

Azalea was going over the wording of the letters to see if they gave any indication that the Academy of Magics was a mixed school or not, but nothing really popped out in her mind.

“I asked some people around since Azalea is going there I just wanted to make sure the Academy of Magics is safe...” Sirius started explaining. That was an understatement, he had been told about it yesterday morning and even though he wanted to take off to investigate the school, he had promised to spend most of the day with Azalea for her birthday.

Heather had convinced James and Lily to take her shopping for her Hogwarts supplies right after getting her Hogwarts letter which took all morning. Then she had taken all afternoon getting ready for her birthday party.

Sirius and Remus had taken it upon themselves to make sure Azalea enjoyed her birthday too and had taken her out into the muggle world. They had gone to see a film and then they had gone to an amusement park. They had to return by 4 however so that Sirius and Remus could get ready to go to Heather’s birthday party.

“...so I asked some acquaintance and I was told that it’s an all-girls school. I also found out that technically the school ground doesn’t stand on any known country’s sovereign. It’s an island of its own, self-rule, I believed.” The adults frown at the information they were hearing while Heather seemed bored out of her mind with the current conversation.

“You are kind of right, Uncle Padfoot. They have a government body that keeps order and imposes the laws, though,” Azalea informed her family.

“And how do you know that young lady?” Lily asked.

“I received their box today. Inside they included a book with more information about their government that they said I should read before I get there,” Azalea informed her truthfully. “It’s key to me, however, so no one else will be able to read it,” she added when she saw her mother was about to ask to see it.

Frowning, James told her seriously, “Make sure to read it very carefully. If you see a law that you don’t like, just tell me and we can still sign you up for Hogwarts and I will just pay the penalty fee for withdrawing.” 

Azalea understood why it was a serious matter so she nodded in agreement easily enough. They were a government that didn’t respond to the International Confederation of Wizards after all so who knew what kind of laws they had? For all Azalea knew there could be laws about slavery on witches and wizards or sacrificial rituals of human beings. 

“Mooommmm,” Heather whined, done with the conversation. “You said, we could go shopping today, can we go soon? Please?” Lily may not be into fashion herself but she didn’t mind taking Heather shopping.

“I want to go get my school supplies today,” Azalea quickly butted in the conversation before her mother could reply to Heather’s question.

“I thought the school took care of the school supplies?” It wasn’t Lily who replied but James.

“They sent a list of suggestions of what I should bring that they don’t provide and I still need to get my wand. Plus, I need to get my measurements and sent it to them so they can make my uniform.”

“But mom, you promise we would go shopping!” Heather chimed in when it looked like her mother was about to agree to go shopping for Azalea’s supplies.

James and Lily shared a weary look, not knowing what to say. “I have to pop into the office this afternoon,” James murmured, looking apologetic. If he hadn’t had to go to his work he would have taken Azalea to do her shopping and Heather and Lily would have gone shopping as they had planned. But being the Head of the Auror Department meant having responsibility that he couldn’t ignore.

“We will take Azalea shopping for her materials,” Remus intervened, having watched the scene play out. It angered him how unfair Azalea was treated but he tried to be supportive of his friends. It wasn’t easy dealing with Heather’s fame and everything that came with it and he knew that James and Lily tried their best to treat them equally. 

But in the end, Heather got her way more often than not. The only reason the Potter household was so peaceful was because Azalea did not seem to mind. She was a wonderful child and Remus feared that one day she would come to resent her parents for always favoring her sister. He dreads the day Azalea would finally have enough and decides to walk away from her parents- from her family. 

_If_ or _when_ that day finally comes, he was sure James and Lily would come to regret missing out on being part of raising such an extraordinary child. Azalea was no girl-who-lived but she was extraordinary in her own way- her mind was a scary place and he would fear what types of things her mind could create if he didn’t know that Azalea was the most caring and kind child there could be. 

“Don’t worry Lily, we will make sure to get everything Azalea will need,” Sirius added when he saw his friends hesitate.

Lily sighed, “Alright. As long as you are alright with it Azalea?”

“Yep, I am going to change!” Azalea excitedly got up. She actually prefers to go out with Padfoot and Moony because they are less recognizable in public and there wouldn't be any reporters following them. 

“Me too!” Heather announced as she ran right behind Azalea, excited to go shopping.

In her hurry, Azalea didn’t see the hurt that flashed in her parent’s eyes. It hurt to see that their daughter didn’t mind not having them there when she went to pick her wand. It was a special moment for witches and wizards because it was a large stepping stone into adulthood and it was common for parents to accompany their child- or children in their case.

\------------------

“What do we have to buy first?” Sirius asks as they walk down Diagon Alley. 

“Well, I have to get my measurements and my wand but I think everything else I think we can get in the muggle world.”

“Really?” Remus asked surprise, after all, witches and wizards stick to the magical world. Only a few like Sirius like going into the muggle world and even fewer knew how to properly blend in.

“Yeah, they suggest I bring pots and pans.”

Sirius snorted, “Are you sure you didn’t bring Meepsy’s shopping list, pup?”

“I didn’t! Look,” Azalea indignantly defended herself, handing the list to Sirius.

“Are they going to make you cook your meals?” Sirius asked incredulously.

This time it was Remus’ turn to snort, “Don’t be daft, Padfoot. They probably provide a kitchen for the students just in case they want to cook.” A second later his words seem to register in his mind and he frowns, “That sounds a bit dangerous for an eleven-year-old, there are not many who know how to cook at that young age. They could set the kitchen on fire or burn themselves.”

“We will buy pots and pans for you but it's best if you stay out of the kitchen, pup.” 

“Do you think they will provide the food to be cooked or do you need to buy that too?” Remus asked Azalea who shrugged in response because she had no clue.

“I am going to go get measure at Madam Malkin’s,” Azalea announced, ready to escape the questions but before she could run off Sirius grabbed her arm.

“We will only buy your wand here. We will be going to Stella’s Ligne De Mode over in Horizontal Alley to get you measured,” Sirius firmly told her as he ushered her to the direction of Ollivander's wand shop.

“But I just need to be measured, I am not buying anything,” Azalea protested. Stella’s establishment was Sirius’ go-to clothing store with only a few others in the magical districts in the UK. The quality of the clothes was much better than Madam Malkin’s but it was also more expensive, not that Sirius cared. It seemed impossible to believe but Sirius was more of a fashion diva then Heather and her father. 

“We will get the measurements but you also need a new wardrobe change for your school. Who knows what season is there, it could be winter when you arrive or summer so we need to buy you clothes for all occasions.” That shut Azalea up.

They didn’t know where in the world the school was located so for all Azalea knew, it could be a different season altogether from Britain. “Okay,” Azalea sighed, her shoulders slumping. So maybe buying her school supplies wasn’t going to be as fun as she thought.

“I am glad we came to an understanding,” Sirius sounded smug, having won the argument. Remus just shared an understanding look with Azalea. They both had suffered through many of Sirius’ shopping sprees, they had bonded over their misery.

When they entered Ollivander’s store, Azalea experienced something different for once in her life. Another reason why Azalea didn’t really like going out was because magical places felt overwhelming to her. Diagon Alley was full of magic everywhere and when she was younger she hated coming here but as she got older she got better at handling it. 

Magic seemed to… talk to her, or at least it tried talking to her. Azalea could escape or ignore it when she was in the muggle world, in low magical environments, or if she was familiar with the place. She expected the inside of the wand store to overwhelm her but the magic inside the place was actually muted down compared to the outside of the store. 

“Hi Mr. Ollivander,” Azalea greeted the older man in the dark corner, noticing him first before Sirius or Remus could. In a muted magical environment like the one inside the store, she could easily feel the larger balls of magic in the room. She had realized a long time ago that the largest balls of magic came from wizards and witches. She hypothesized that it was their magical core she was feeling but had no way to prove it. 

“Ms. Potter, I was surprised not to see you when your sister came to get her wand, 11” long, made out of Aspen wood with a dragon heartstring core, a strong wand indeed, suited best for charms. But how about we find a wand for you now, which is your wand arm?” 

Dazed, Azalea lifted her right arm. Ollivander just had a certain personality that gave Azalea a headache. Both Sirius and Remus stood towards the entrance door to not get on the way. 

“Here try this one, 10” long made out of cypress wood with a unicorn hair core.” Mr. Ollivander turned around to search for another wand but stopped halfway when Azalea grabbed the wand from its case and it produced sparks.

“Ah, what luck to find your wand so quickly,” Mr. Ollivander didn’t seem particularly thrilled about the bonding, however. 

“Is there something wrong with my wand Mr. Ollivander?” Azalea asked curiously. 

“No, there is nothing wrong. It is always an honor to see a cypress wand match. My great great great grandfather, Geraint Ollivander, wrote that he was always honored to match a cypress wand, for he knew he was meeting a witch or wizard who would die a heroic death.”

“Thank you, Mr. Ollivander. How much do we own you?” Sirius quickly stepped between Azalea and the wandmaker like Mr. Ollivander was out to kill her. Azalea, for her part, was glad because Mr. Ollivander’s wide pale searching eyes creeped her out.

Remus just put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a small squeeze as a comforting gesture. “Every Ollivander wand costs 7 Galleons, Mr. Black.”

“Right, thank you,” Sirius called out as he ushered Remus and Azalea out of the wand store as fast as possible. 

“Good luck Azalea Potter,” Ollivander whispered as the door closed behind the group. Now, he wondered how Albus was going to take the news that none of the three possible children of the prophecy picked the brother wand of You-Know-Who. 

\----------------------

Azalea returned home with more bags than she thought she would return with in the morning before she went out. How she was going to fit everything in her trunk even when it had five compartments, she did not know. 

For the moment all of the things she bought she was going to put in a corner of her bedroom. She had to talk to her mom about her school trunk. Maybe she could enlarge it or maybe they had a larger trunk stored in their family vault that belonged to a Potter ancestor.

Sirius placed a large order in Stella’s store that would be delivered by owl throughout the next three weeks because -yes, he did order that large of amount of clothes for her. Winter robes and cloaks, summer robes and cloaks, dress robes, winter gloves, dragon gloves, dragon boots -that was all in the magical world.

They later went into the muggle side and Sirius went crazy, he always preferred shopping for clothes in the muggle world. He bought her a lot of different dresses, tops, bottoms, jumpers, pinafore rompers, jackets, overcoats, socks, pajamas, and all types of shoes from rubber boots, hiking boots, trainers- to sandals, flats, and comfy slippers. 

That was not mentioned all the types of accessories he bought to go with different outfits. Hats, sunglasses, scarfs, headbands, belts, and another 8 pairs of gloves. Then he had to remember about perfume and the only positive side was that he took Azalea’s opinion of the scent as he picked them out. The perfume of course reminded him about all types of lotions and oils and creams she ‘needed’ to take care of her skin. 

The only thing that remotely cheered Azalea up was that Remus was right there in the same boat as her, if not worse since he had enhanced smell due to his werewolf side. People were right when they said, ‘misery loves company’. 

Surprisingly Sirius did not buy her make-up, not that she wanted it. Heather had been nagging their father for some but he refused to give in. He said they were only allowed to wear makeup when they turn 13, which wasn’t that important for Azalea since she didn’t really care about her appearance. 

Through the trip, she had to remind Sirius many times that she would still be returning home and that there was a village nearby the school where she could buy anything that she needed because he was buying multiples of the same items like she was going away for years instead of just a couple of months. 

They did get a lot of other things done, thankfully. They bought muggle school materials like pens, pencils, notebooks, sticky notes, folders, a large calendar she was going to put on one wall of her dorm, and many more things. Remus promised her that he would buy her a magical planner, quills, ink, parchment, and anything else he saw in the magical school supply store that could be useful to her when he went to the store in a couple of days from now. 

Remus had gifted her a messenger bag to carry her books to and from class, it was made out of brown dragon skin and it was enlarged from the inside to be able to carry more stuff -in other words, it was practical instead of fashionable and Azalea loved it. Sirius on the other hand had gifted her a magical watch that would help her immensely by keeping track of where she had to be and what she had to do besides telling her the time and date.

They took longer than they thought so they ended up dining out. Her parents were pretty relaxed about what time she had to be home as long as she was with either Sirius or Remus so she didn’t have to worry about returning to a certain hour.

“Oh my, did Sirius go overboard again?” Lily asked sympathetically when she saw Azalea carrying bulges of bags, even the shrinking charm has its limits apparently.

“He wanted to make sure I was prepared for school. He had a good point when he said we don’t even know if it will be winter or summer or something in between at the school when I arrive since we don’t know where it is located,” Azalea quickly defended Sirius even though her mother did not mean anything malicious by her simple question. Azalea was just very protective of both men, she was protective of her family too but there were not many who would talk bad about her family anyways.

Lily frowned at the reminder of how little they knew of the school but decided to not dwell on it, “Do you need help packing?”

“I was actually hoping that you could enlarge my trunk?” Azalea ended up sounding like she was asking a question instead of a request as she gave her mom a sheepish look.

“Those are a lot of bags but I think you can fit them all in your trunk if they are packed neatly,” her mother gave her an encouraging look.

“Mom, these bulky bags are full of shrunk bags and the shrunk bags are full of more shrunk bags. Plus, we will be getting a lot of owl packages from Estella’s establishment in the next couple of weeks as she works on Sirius’ order of my clothes,” Azalea tried to stress the severity of the issue at hand. She was glad the bags had a weightless charm on them too or else her arms would have already fallen off from having to hold onto them for so long.

It seemed her mother understood the implication as her eyes widened, “Alright, give me a couple of days to work on it and see what I can do.”

“Thanks, mom! I am going to put those somewhere in my room for now.” Azalea shot her a grateful smile and tried to wave but her hands were occupied at the moment. She gained a fond smile from her mother though for her effort which was worth the awkward half handwave.

“Did Padfoot and Moony already leave? I wanted to talk to them,” James questioned as he came out of his office just in time as Azalea was passing by.

“Yep, they were exhausted,” Azalea informed her father as she continued walking by, just slowing her pace a bit.

“How did your wand shopping go?” James couldn’t help but ask. It was a tradition that mattered more to James because he belonged to a pureblood family than Lily who hadn’t had the magical traditions engrave in her mind from a very young age.

“I bonded to the first wand I tried, 10” long made out of cypress wood with a unicorn hair core,” Azalea parrot the same words Mr. Ollivander had spoken early that day to her. She didn’t mention the heroic death part, however, because she didn’t want to worry her father.

“Congratulations,” her father told her sincerely (and proudly). 

“Uh, thanks,” Azalea fumble a bit, not used to seeing that look aimed at her from her father or from anyone in general actually. She knew instinctively that her family was proud of her whether they told her or not but she didn’t think she deserved such praises so hearing them made her feel extremely uncomfortable. “I- um, I am going to put all my stuff away and get some sleep.”

Her father nodded in agreement, “Good night Azalea.”

The moment Azalea entered her room she closed the door behind her and put her bags down -it was the perfect timing to sneak out of the house unnoticed. She acted her usual night routine and stuffed pillows underneath her blanket to appear like her in case her parents came to check on her and turn the lights off. She opened the window and used the vines beside the window to help her climb down. 

The first time she had done it she had gained a lot of scratches and had fallen a couple of feet below her. Thankfully there had been no broken or sprain bones. Now it was like second nature for her. 

It wasn’t like she sneaked off to do notorious things but she didn’t believe her parents would allow her to visit the woods at the edge of Godric’s Hollow so late at night only to visit a tree. They would think it wasn’t important and that it could wait until the next day but it was _important_ to her. 

When she was younger she loved to go explore the woods. Her mother and father were away with Heather, and Sirius and Remus would be on vacation which left her alone with Meepsy. Meepsy would allow her to go play in the woods during the day when there were people milling around the calm and small village, but only if she stayed near the edge of the woods. 

“Hello,” Azalea whispered to the thin and small tree, it looked so fragile. 

It didn't look impressive but she was sure that in a couple of years it would grow to be a strong and handsome oak tree.

She did not dare to get closer to it or touch it but she crouched down to just look at it. Around where the tree was planted there was a circle of azaleas flowers surrounding it. She had not planted the flowers there, they just appeared one day out of nowhere but she left them alone because she thought it was pretty symbolic. 

She visits the tree every day even if she has to sneak out very early in the morning or very late at night. She thought it was a fitting punishment, to come to visit the physical reminder of her crime. 

The magic surrounding the tree felt... gloomy, no matter how much Azalea hopes for it to feel different every time she visits, it doesn’t. It was better than the anger and fear that had surrounded the tree at the beginning, however. 

She prefers to ignore her gift but every time she comes to visit the tree she concentrates so she could feel the magic. Her hope is that one day the magic surrounding the tree would feel... peaceful. 

Leaving for school has torn her apart. On one side she is happy that she doesn’t have to see the proof of what a monster she truly is but on the other hand, she feels guilty for feeling happy about not having to visit. 

“I am sorry,” Azalea apologies like she does every time she visits before she stands up and starts making her way back home.

She has traveled this path so many times that she could travel it with her eyes closed. She has many worries about school but the dominant problem in her mind was her magic. 

She was afraid of her magic and what it could do. No normal witch or wizard could perform magic as easily as breathing. No one felt like their magic was alive and sentimental. She had tried to find a solution to her problem for many years but she never found anything... something

She looked at her hands like they had betrayed her as she made sure to stay in the shadows as she walked home. To her, they may as well have but she knew blaming solemnly her magic for what happened that day was unfair -she also partly shared the blame too, if not all of it, since it was _her_ magic that had acted out.

“Please, don’t allow me to harm anyone else,” Azalea prayed quietly to whatever deity was out there, looking up at the partly lit up night sky.

\--------------------------------

  
  


James Potter sighed for what appeared to be the hundredth time as he waited for his daughters to come to his office after having summoned them through Meepsy. Today was the last whole day he would have both of them under the same roof until Christmas break. 

They were a handful that was for certain, one was too withdrawn while the other one was too energetic, but he loved both dearly. He now understood how his parents felt when they saw him off to Hogwarts and part of him felt guilty that he had been so excited about it. 

At least with Heather, he could easily apparate to Hogwarts if anything were to happen or floo through the Headmaster’s office but he had no way of reaching Azalea. That was the reason he had debated with himself for so long about who to give the two-way communication mirrors. 

Since Heather received the Marauder's map, James thought it was only fair that Azalea received the Potter invisibility cloak. But he didn’t know who to give the two-way mirrors to. 

On one hand Heather was most likely to get in trouble because of who she was. He was not blind to the many enemies his daughter had made because she had defeated Voldemort, even if she had done it unknowingly. While he and Lily, along with Sirius who had a lot of pull (being a Black and all, whether he liked it or not), kept Heather protected from the cruel truth of the world but they couldn’t shield her from everything now that she was going to Hogwarts.

Azalea on the other hand was going to a completely unknown territory and even though they had those mailboxes, he would prefer to see that she was okay if anything were to happen instead of just reading a letter. 

Unfortunately, there weren’t enough mirrors for him to give one to Heather and Azalea and keep one himself to communicate with them.

“Come in,” James called out after a knock broke him out of his thoughts. Right away he knew that Azalea was in front because Heather would have just barged in without knocking.

“Hey, dad did you want to talk to us?” 

“Is it more rules?” Heather asked exasperated as she walked from behind Azalea and practically threw herself into a seat.

James smiled wearily, “No, no more rules.” Lily had given the twins an hour lecture about staying out of danger and what they should do if trouble arose. Lily’s solution to almost every problem was to tell the professors but if it was something very serious to send them a letter instead or talk to the headmaster or headmistress in Azalea’s case. 

James had only stood next to Lily to show a united front but he knew that her words entered the girls’ ears and came out in their other ear, they were his blood after all. There was a time James swore he would become curse breaking. The adventure, fame, and danger had appealed to him so he was sure that Heather at least would ignore her natural instincts and just charge into danger, which just thinking about it was turning his hair prematurely grey.

But he wasn’t sure about Azalea. She seemed to inherit Lily’s maturity and intelligence so he was hopeful that she would stay out of trouble. 

“I call you because I want to give you something,” James informed them as he handed them a mirror each.

“A mirror?” Heather asked, not looking impressed as she took a closer look and saw nothing special about it.

“The communication mirrors,” Azalea murmured softly as she barely lets her fingers caress the edges of the mirror. 

“The what?”

“You know about them?” James asked, surprised.

“Padfoot told me about them. He told me about how you used them during detention and it drove the professors barney because they couldn't’ figure out how you communicated with each other even though you were given separated detentions.”

“That’s true,” James mused out loud, remembering the old days when they had been just foolish school boys. “You are actually holding Sirius’ mirror while Heather, you have mine.”

“They sound wicked, how do they work?”

“You only have to say the name of the other person, they were modified to activate your names instead of Sirius and mine.”

“Azalea!” Heather exclaimed excited into the mirror wanting to try it out.

“Heather,” Azalea clearly stated when her mirror started to vibrate in her hands, not needing directions on how to answer a call in the mirror. 

“Wicked!” Heather squeal when she saw Azalea’s face in the mirror. “We can still see each other now even though we are far away!”

“You have seen my schedule though so you know you can’t call during the day,” Azalea warned her sister. 

“I know, I know. I promised to keep your schedule in mind. In fact, I won’t call you tomorrow, instead, I will wait for your call so don’t forget to call me,” Heather demands as she compromises. Heather had taken a look at Azalea’s class schedule and all interest in the school had flowed out the window.

“Deal,” Azalea easily agreed.

Watching both of them, James knew he had picked the right decision. Instead of keeping one and picking one of his daughters to give the mirror to, he decided to give both of them a mirror so they could communicate with one another. 

“Alright, if that was all dad we are going to continue packing,” Heather abruptly stated as she jumped up from her seat. 

James nodded amuse, knowing how serious Heather took packing her clothes, “That was all, just remember to be done in three hours for the family dinner. Padfoot and Moony should be arriving just before dinner time and they will be sleeping over to see you off tomorrow morning.”

“Got it, got it,” Heather said exasperatedly as she drags Azalea behind her.

“Thank you, dad!” James heard Azalea’s shout as they got further away, Azalea trying to keep up with Heather. 

He just shook his head fondly at the antics of the girls. Now with that out of the way he could plan when he would inform Sirius that he was wrong. The Academy of Magics was not an all-girls school like Sirius had estated before.

After Sirius had informed them that he was informed that the school was an all-girls school James had been looking into it. The answer had been in front of his face the whole time.

In the invitation letter, several alumni had been mention and some of them had been males so the Academy of Magics definitely accepted girls _and_ boys. Whoever told Sirius that the school was an all-girls school was either pulling Sirius’ leg (which was not unlikely because Sirius pissed a lot of people in his life) or they didn’t know themselves. 

He was thinking the best time to informed Sirius was when he took a drink. It would definitely be hilarious and it would serve Sirius right for spiking his morning coffee with a potion to turn his hair a metallic blue. 

Maybe he would even charm Sirius’ chair sound like Sirius was passing gas when he sat down. Just imagining the scene made him snicker. 

If his wife knew what he was thinking she would have rolled her eyes at him and started murmuring about overgrown children. But Lily honestly couldn’t understand and appreciate the art of pranking and unfortunately, neither of his daughters seemed to be interested in it either. 

Oh, the woes of James Potter. 

  
  


\----------------------------------

  
  


“You have everything you need, right? Didn’t forget anything?” Lily fretted over Azalea as she was the first to leave for her school that morning. 

“Yes mom,” Azalea parrot her answer again. Lily had asked that question every two minutes. 

“And remember to send weekly letters.”

“Yes, mom.”

“Don’t listen to Lily, you don’t have to send weekly letters but maybe every two weeks?” Sirius suggested as he stepped up to give her a hug, ignoring the glare aimed at him from Lily.

“Pff, I am not sending a letter every week or every two weeks. I will send a letter every month though,” Heather butt in. The stubborn tilt to her chin told everyone that they would most likely not change her mind. 

The difference between the two of them couldn’t be clearer. 

“I will send as many letters as I can,” Azalea amended, trying to prevent an argument from rising up. 

“That’s all we ask, if something is wrong don’t hesitate to send a letter or contact Heather through the communication mirrors and she can send us a letter,” Remus told her gently but sternly as he stepped forward to give her a hug.

“I promise,” Azalea whispered in his shirt as she hugged him tighter. Remus had been her mentor, teacher, and friend and she felt scared now that it settled in her mind that she was going to be away from him… from her family, from her comfort zone.

“If you need anything just send us a letter and we will get it for you,” her father reminded her of the conversation they had weeks ago. 

They didn’t know anything about the school so they didn’t know if Azalea had everything she needed or not. At Hogwarts, the beds were already made but they didn’t know if the Academy of Magics provided bed sheets and comforters.

They had not questioned it, assuming that it would provide what Hogwarts provided until Sirius and Remus had informed them about shopping for pans and pots and kitchen supplies for Azalea. They assumed the food would be provided for her but they were ready to send her food supplies and food already made through the mailbox if Azalea sent them a letter saying they didn’t provide the children with food. 

“I will, promise.” 

“My turn,” Heather cheerfully announced as she budges their father to the side to give Azalea a very tight hug that actually choked Azalea slightly. “Oops,” Heather giggled, letting her go.

“I will miss you too,” Azalea told her sarcastically as she cough. 

“Get in as much trouble as you can so that when I get in trouble it will look like an angel compared to you.”

Azalea wasn’t sure if her sister was joking or not but either way she rolled her eyes, “How about you don’t just get in trouble. And I mean it Heather, look after yourself.”

“I will, promise,” Heather told her earnestly.

“30 seconds left,” James announced as Heather stepped back.

They had all gathered in the backyard to send her off. Her portkey was going to activate at 10:00 AM which worked out perfectly because it gave her family an hour to get to platform 9 ¾ which was plenty of time especially since they were going to apparate directly to the magical side of the platform.

Azalea clenched the diamond teardrop in her hand as the string sat securely around her neck. She took a good look at the people in front of her, committing them to memory even if she was going to see them in a couple of months and later on today in Heather’s case.

She was surprised to see the sadness and concern shining in their eyes even as they tried to give her encouraging smiles. Subconsciously she knew that her family loved her but moments when she could clearly see it took her back. “I love you,” Azalea mouth just as the portkey whisked her away. 

Maybe if she knew what awaited her she would have never decided to attend the Academy of Magics. Maybe if she had known that she wouldn’t be seeing her family for years she would have never touched the portkey.

Or

Maybe if she had known she would find her destiny there she wouldn’t have changed her mind anyway. Maybe if she had known they would allow her to become her own person she wouldn’t have changed her mind at all. 

Just maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So next chapter, we find out what Azalea really is and more information that clarifies a lot of things... I think.
> 
> But keep in mind that:
> 
> 1\. The wand scene is explained further next chapter, and you will understand why finding her wand was so easy  
> 2\. The tree scene is very important, but it won't be explained until later on in the story  
> 3\. There is a bit of foreshadowing 
> 
> Also, the next chapter, we get introduced to a lot of original characters, which I kind of know what their personalities are going to be but not their names. There is a lot of information about the school and how it works, so chapter 3 will take WAY longer to publish, especially now that I started school, just a heads up.
> 
> I also know I should add more description, but I honestly like the fact that you can imagine a room or a scene playing out in your mind with your own details. Everyone can have their own opinion of how Azalea's room looks like, how James' office looks like, etc. but I will try to be more descriptive next time.
> 
> Also, thanks for the review and kudos, guys! They really encourage me to write this chapter faster (I may have ignored some school work 😉 but it was totally worth it😂). I really appreciate all of your kind words! ❤️


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Harry Potter or the pictures posted in this chapter, except for the 'blueprints' of how the dorm and common room are supposed to look like.  
> If you are the original creator of the pictures and would like me to take them down then just send me a comment and I will.
> 
> That being said, I am sorry it took so long to post it but since I took so long, this chapter is a total of 45 pages! Yay for me :)
> 
> The conversation between Heather and Azalea seemed pretty rushed but that was because I was writing that scene at 2:30 in the morning and I just wanted to get it done and over with so I could go to sleep.
> 
> Thanks for all of the comments and kudos, they motivated me to get this chapter finish! 😊
> 
> Until next time 😉

The portkey brought Azalea to a large courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard, there were benches making a circle around a statue of a woman dressed in a simple yet elegant victorian address. On one hand, the woman was holding a staff, and on the other one, she was holding an open book. 

The courtyard was enclosed by buildings on all sides. Azeal had landed on one corner where there was a stone archway and right on the opposite side stood an exact stone archway while leaving an empty space right between them, splitting the courtyard into two, Azalea and her group stood on the side of the larger courtyard. 

There were small garden patches full of beautiful flowers flourishing along with the buildings. The courtyard had many open stone rectangular gazebos with rails. Some had up to three long tables with benches to sit while some only held benches, and some only had one long table with one bench on each side of the table for students to sit. 

There were towers of all shapes that could be seen from the courtyard, some skinner, some thicker, some short, some very tall, and the largest tower stood in between two shorter towers that were thinner. Behind them, you could see the rocky mountains that actually look like buildings had been carved in them. 

There was a large archway that led towards a smaller rectangular courtyard that gave access to the large tower and other buildings around it. Right above that archway, the time was displayed in blue light numbers, ‘7:00 AM’ it read. The bare sun peeking over the horizon just proved the time. 

Azalea’s group easily contained more than 50 children. Their group was full of children from all types of ethnicity with different backgrounds. Most look normal enough, except some had pointy ears, others had what looked like large flowers on top of their head until you realized that it was actually their hair which looked like flower petals, some had tints of color to their skin, some had large pupils in their eyes, and some had very small pupils in their eyes that it didn’t look like they had any at first glance. 

In front of the group stood a man, dirty blond hair with steel-grey eyes. He looked like someone they did not want to mess with, “Good morning, students, welcome to the Academy of Magics, I am Head Deputy Stefen Richter- you can call me Professor Richter. It’s September 1st, and it’s currently seven AM. You can make your own calculations to figure out the time difference between here and your home. I will give you a tour of the school; we will visit first-year classrooms, libraries, dining halls, dorms, other classrooms, the school grounds, and the infirmary where you will be given a check-up. 

“We won’t have time to get a tour of the whole school in one day, but what we will see should help you get around in your first couple of weeks until you get the hang of everything. As you can see, your peers are from different countries all around the world, and they may not speak the same language as you. That won’t be a problem as long as you are on the school grounds, the wards help us understand each other. 

“The village, which you will get to visit at some point, is not covered by the school wards- thus, you won’t be able to understand each other. The spoken language in this country is English, all citizens know at least one more language besides English but they may not know your language so I suggest for those students that don’t know English already to learn -and fast. 

“Now does anyone need their luggage shrink? This school does not have Brownies so you will have to carry your luggage until you get to your dorms.” Professor Richter cast a wide gaze at the group in front of him and didn’t see any type of luggage among them. He mentally nodded in approval, even Ms. Potter had no luggage around her. 

He paused slightly when his gaze found her. Unconsciously his eyes narrowed at her and a frown started to appear before he realized what he was doing and composed himself into a neutral look. He did not like the prospect of an outsider coming to the Academy of Magics but the Headmistress had sent her a personal invitation without his knowledge and after Ms. Potter had accepted, there wasn’t much he could do. 

Stefen Richter believed he composed his face fast enough but with the sharp eyes of the children in front of him, they saw the look he had given Azalea. Not wanting to associate with someone the Head Deputy did not like the children shifted slightly away from Azalea without making it obvious -or at least they tried not to be obvious about it. 

Azalea was oblivious to it. She was oblivious to the beauty around her, to the strange-looking children, to the glare of the Head Deputy, and to the information that had been provided to them already.

All of her concentration was on standing upright. 

She expected to be surrounded by a lot of magic but she had not been prepared to feel the strength of the magic. It was drowning her and she was doing her best not to panic outright because it would only worsen her conditions which she knew would result in her throwing up her breakfast. 

Magic was excited to see her, it flunked eagerly to her. She had never felt magic as strongly as she was feeling it at the moment, the magic in the place was strong and it spread more freely around. It was complicated for someone else to understand but to Azalea it made perfect sense. 

Finally, she felt the magic calmed down just as she swiped away something that she felt under her nose and bringing it up she realized that it was her blood… she got a nosebleed!

She hadn’t had one since many years ago, she wiped the blood as discreetly as she could but looking around she realized that no one had seen her nosebleed because her group was already walking away from her. _Great, what a good way to start_ Azalea thought to herself sarcastically as she hurried to keep up with her group. 

Only as she caught up with them did she realized how different her peers looked. She couldn't help but look wide-eye at who were going to be her classmates for the next 7 years. She knew about magical creatures of course and she had an open mind about them unlike most of the wizarding population because Remus was a werewolf and he was the kindness and wisest person she knew. That, however, wasn’t enough to stop her from looking surprised at so many different magical creatures. 

She could identify some of them right away. Fairies, werewolves (by some of their scars that look similar to Remus’), Veelas, and Elves who did not look anything like house-elves. Witches and wizards refer to them as House-elves but magical creatures refer to them as Brownies because of the other types of elves there were, at least that is what Remus had told her once.

There were some who looked perfectly human but she knew better because she could feel through magic that they were different. She tried to subtly look around her classmates but wasn’t so successful when she made eye contact with a girl who was obviously a fairy. She had pale green skin, her hair was a warm brown that was made into a petal shape like some other girls, and her eyes were honey brown. All in all, Azalea thought that the girl was very pretty -except for the haughty sneer decorating her face which let Azalea know exactly what type of person she was. She quickly broke her gaze and decided that it was best to stop ogling at her classmates.

“...the buildings surrounding the Golden Courtyard hold mathematics and Language Arts classes. The towers behind them hold the administrative offices, including my office and that of the Headmistress. Now, we are using one of the many ways we can get to the heart of the school which is why we refer to it as Pallas Hall, in honor of our founder and the person who built all of this from scratch.” 

Azalea could clearly hear the respect Head Deputy Richter had for Isadora Pallas even though she was long gone by the time he was born. However, Azalea’s thoughts about that topic flew out of her mind when they came to the part of the school that was called Pallas Hall. 

It was huge! It looked like it was carved right out of the mountain which made Azalea want to slap her head for not realizing it sooner. There were buildings everywhere, one had a clock right in the middle that said 7:20 which made her blink in surprise, thinking for a moment that the clock was displaying the wrong time but since no one was commenting she deducted that wherever the academy was established there was a 3-hour difference between here and home since her wristwatch said it was 10:20. 

“The building with the clock is the Valor library which contains levels one, two, and three in every core subject. I am sure many of you will spend your time there.” 

They were briefly allowed to go inside and Azalea wanted to squeal and jump around in joy. There were so many books! The building contained 11 different levels and each section had a label with the subject the books in that area focused on. There were many tables and chairs on the main floor but there were a few single study desks tugged in corners on the other levels. The check-out desk stood near the door and there was a pretty lady with blue-ish tinted skin and blue-ish/black-ish hair that seemed happy to answer the questions that the braver or perhaps eager students asked her about. 

“The building right across this one with the flower shape window is the Efflorescence Library and it contains all of the books you will need for level four, five, six, and seven for all of your core classes.”

Without a doubt, the Efflorescence Library was bigger than the Valor Library. Just like the Valor Library, it seems like the muggle subjects were located in the upper levels while the magical subject books were located on the lower levels of the library. Azalea felt like she had died and gone to heaven. 

“The buildings behind this library are classrooms. Magical History classrooms to be exact, whether you are in level 1 or level 12 you will find your history class taking place in one of those buildings. You will soon recognize that the school clusters together the classrooms for each subject around the school grounds. Most if not all non-magical subjects will be held in a classroom surrounding a courtyard while magical subjects will be held in classrooms inside the mountain. The exception is potions, herbology, and healing. Now the large building you see in the corner is the Great Hall. You are only required to be present during the dinner of the first day of school and of the last day of school before the summer break. 

“You will be sitting on the table closer to the teacher’s table tonight. Tonight you will see that your upper classmates seem to be sitting in groups and that is because at the end of your first year you will get to make your own groups. They had to have at least 10 people to be qualified as a group and it can’t be larger than 20 students per group. Once you are in that group you cannot change groups so I would be very careful about who you group with if I were you, after all, you will remain in this group until you graduate. You will get more information about this during the third semester if you haven’t asked an upper classmate by then.”

That was news to Azalea. There was nothing about groups on the school agenda but looking around and seeing the surprise faces around her made her feel better. It was probably a tradition kept secret just like it was a tradition to keep secret about how children were sorted in Hogwarts. 

They continued their tour and Azalea tried to keep track of locations of things but geography was never her strong point. She at least was able to group together different places in the school.

Pallas Hall basically contained the two libraries, history classrooms, the Great Hall, and the observatories where their Astronomy lessons were going to take place. On the floor below it, there were even more classrooms like Arithmancy and Magical Theory. Potions took place in the buildings surrounding the ‘silver courtyard’ which was a fitting name since it contained a lot of silver decorations. 

They even visit the Greenhouses on the school grounds where their Herbology classes were going to take place. Nearby were a couple of buildings where the Herbology Professors were going to hold lectures if they were not going to hold a practical lesson. As they were given their tour they caught a glimpse of the farming field and they saw people working the field. 

Around 10:30 they started making their way towards the infirmity. Not only was the infirmity there but healing classes were also held nearby. When they got there Azalea was surprised by how modern it looked, it reminded her of a muggle doctor’s office, how she knew that -she wasn’t going to explain. 

“Good morning Professor Ritcher, this must be your batch of first years,” the reception lady was very welcoming and her sunnily personally contrasted greatly with Professor Ritcher’s stormy personality. 

“Indeed, I am sure you are ready for them?” His tone made it clear that there was only one answer he expected to hear.

“Indeed, everyone is ready for your group Stefen.” It wasn’t the reception lady that answered him but another woman who was definitely not a nurse based on the formal outfit she had on. She had fiery red hair with honey brown eyes, a combination that startled Azalea for a moment. She looked like a businesswoman and more importantly -she looked like a woman not to trifle with but Azalea still wondered if they would ever find her remains after Professor Ritcher was through with her.

In the end, it seemed she didn’t have to worry because the moment Professor Ritcher saw who had spoken up he gave her a respectful bow, “Headmistress Castellanos.” 

Upon hearing Professor Ritcher address the headmistress her classmates were quick to offer a respectful bow with a quiet ‘Headmistress Castellanos’. Azalea was thrown off by the formal greeting so she was just two seconds behind following their lead and her bow was more clumsily than the rest of her classmates but since she was in the back she hoped no one had noticed her clumsy greeting.

“I didn’t expect to see you here Headmistress Castellanos,” Professor Ritcher commented, a slight questioning tone in his voice. 

“Well, I just decided to meet the first batch of first-year students. But please don’t let me hold you off -go on, the nurses and healers are all waiting for you.” Headmistress gestures for the children to continue their journey behind a set of closed doors.

The first one to make a move was the same girl from early that had a sneer in her face. She gave a bow as she passed the Headmistress and the others followed her lead as they made their way towards the room behind the door. Azalea couldn’t help but feel like the Headmistress’ eyes had followed her until she closed the door behind her since she was the last one of the group to enter the room.

She quickly forgot about her unease over the Headmistress as she witnessed healers and nurses calling out names and quickly usher each student to a bed where they pull the curtains around the bed to give privacy. It seemed like the healers and nurses were very efficient in their work because soon she was left standing alone as everyone else was called. 

She wondered what she was supposed to do when the door behind her opened again and the Headmistress, Professor Ritcher, and a younger woman with blond hair and crystal blue eyes walked in. 

“Hello, you must be Azalea Potter, correct? I am Healer Lufkin and I will be doing your check-up today.” 

“Um, I am Azalea Potter -yes… and -um… okay?” Azalea was thrown off by the sudden arrival, Healer Lufkin was a very known healer so it made Azalea wonder exactly what she was doing coming to the Academy of Magic just to give check-ups to 11-year-old children. She gave a belated bow not knowing if she should give one or not but it seemed like Healer Lufkin and the Headmistress were not offended by her manners -Professor Ritcher was another story, with his lips thinning into a straight line and the unimpressed looked he gave her. 

“Excellent, let’s go then.” Healer Lufkin gestures to the bed at the end of the row of beds on the right. 

“Um…” Azalea trailed off when she sat on the bed and realized that the Headmistress had come with them. Thank goodness Professor Ritcher had not followed her too or she would have had some objections then. 

“I hope you don’t mind my presence, I promise I won’t interfere -I am not a healer after all,” Headmistress chuckled at the end. “We are under oath too, so anything that we learn here we will not be able to discuss it with another person unless the patient, which in this case is you, allow us to do so.”

“...alright.” In the end, Azalea agreed because it wasn’t like she had another choice! She definitely wasn’t going to tell the Headmistress what to do on her first day of being in the school. Azalea already knew that Professor Ritcher wasn’t too fond of her, no need to get on the bad side of the Headmistress too.

The first scan Healer Lufkin did was the simple scan that gave her a summary of her health. It was a scan that most nurses in schools would give students in their medical exam -if they gave any to begin with. Azalea knew that Hogwarts had no such thing. 

The second scan was a history scan which would produce a history of injuries she had sustained along with illnesses she had in the past. Azalea wasn’t accident-prone because she spent most of her time inside reading a book so that scan sheet wasn’t too long. 

It was until Healer Lufkin scanned Azalea’s magic that things got confusing. A scan on a patients’ magic was usually only done in critical cases when patients were cursed by an unknown spell. Some family members also hired healers who could do the scan on their children when they didn’t produce magic by 7 years old, fearing that their children were squibs or there was something wrong with the magical core of their children.

“Hmm,” Healer Lufkin hum as she compared the notes she got from the three different scans. Azalea was becoming more twitchy the longer she sat in the bed, she knew there was no way they could find out what she did from simple scans but that did nothing to calm her down.

Her heart seemed to slow down a bit when Healer Lufkin only seemed interested in examining her left hand more closely. “Are you wearing a glamour charm over your hand to hide something ?” Healer Lufkin asked after she seemed to give up for whatever she was trying to find.

“A scar,” Azalea admitted surprise. “When I was younger my palm would tingle up but I could not see anything until I was 4 when it flared up suddenly but instead of a tingle it was very painful. I freaked out and thought something was trying to come out from my hand and suddenly I could see the scar.”

Azalea lifted her palm up, letting her glamour fade and lettingHealer Lufkin have a look, even Headmistress Castellano leaned forward to take a closer look. “It’s a lightning bolt,” Healer Lufkin whispered in awe.

“Do you remember how you got this?” The Headmistress asked.

Azalea was already shaking her head before the Headmistress finished asking her question, “No, I don’t remember and I never felt the urge to ask my parents about it either.”

Azalea left out the part of how she thought it made her feel special and decided not to tell her parents so that Heather wouldn’t whine about not having a cool scar like hers. It was silly to be possessive over the lighting bolt scar but it was something that only she had and Heather didn’t and she thought it was best to keep it a secret… at least when she was 4 years old but now she was less attached to the scar.

“Why does it matter that it’s a lighting bolt scar?” Azalea had to ask. 

“Magic does everything for a reason and what you have here is a curse scar that was not naturally made so the lighting bolt shape matters more than you think. Lighting bolts are a traditional symbol of sudden illumination and the destruction of ignorance.”

Headmistress Castellano continued where Healer Lufkin left off, “They are the image of sudden and terrible events and a symbol of intuition. Although it can carry negative connotations, lighting is also a form of divine message, honoring those _chosen_.”

Azalea tense not only about what she was hearing but also at the almost pleasing tone of the Headmistress as she informed her of what the lighting bolt symbol stood for. Azalea could only think of one terrible event that could have produced the scar and she didn’t like to think about that night because it was that attack that put her sister in the spotlight while she was left in the shadows. 

“Can you heal it?” Azalea asked, wanting to get back to the main topic.

“Curse scars are tricky to deal with. Curse scars tingling is not unheard of but flaring up in pain is something that should not happen. There is also the factor of no one treating your scar before so there may be dark magic residue. Let me check it in more detail and we shall see.”

Azalea nodded and stood still, allowing Healer Lufkin to do her job. Five minutes later she had her other hand clench in a fist trying to brave out the pain but it just got to her and she jank her hand away from Healer Lufkin’s hands. Azalea was left panting like she ran a marathon and her body had a slight trembling. It wasn’t only the pain that Azalea had enough of but she was also worried that her magic would act out at Healer Lufkin for hurting her even though Azalea knew that Healer Lufkin did not _mean_ to hurt her.

“I apologize Azalea, I didn’t want to cause you any pain.” Healer Lufkin looked remorseful but it was overshadowed by the plain concern shining in her eyes. 

“Its… It's okay, but can I leave now? This is just supposed to be a check-up to see I am healthy and now that you know I am, can I return to my group? Professor Ritcher is probably waiting for me.”

“Azalea -we just found a curse scar in your hand. It stinks of forbidden magic and no one has ever checked on it, that is something we can’t overlook. I am sorry but you will have to stay here until we figure everything out.” Healer Lufkin looked apologetic but her tone was firm.

“I will let Professor Ritcher know to not wait for you. They will be heading to eat lunch now but don’t worry I will make sure food is brought to you after your medical screening is done.”

Before Azalea could object the Headmistress was already pulling the curtains and walking away. “I want to ask, would you mind if I turn my mage sight on you?” Healer Lufkin brought Azalea’s attention back to her.

“You have mage sight?! I thought it was an extinct talent only heard about in the tales of Merlin now.”

“Fortunately, that is not true. I was blessed with the mage sight and you can be sure that there are others in this school that have the same talent that I do. I don’t use it too much because I don’t like telling people about it and I don’t like to use it here because the magic is overwhelming and I get the worst headache possible afterward but I believe that using mage sight is the best course of action here.” 

“Why do you ask for my permission, it’s not like you need it?” Azalea didn’t ask the question to offend her but just out of pure curiosity.

“I could,” Healer Lufkin agreed. “But that would be bad manners, don’t you think.” 

Azalea just nodded knowing that it was a rhetorical question. 

For a moment nothing seemed to happen… then her eyes turned a smokey white that freaked Azalea out for a moment. Azalea didn’t speak or move, not wanting to interrupt Healer Lufkin in what looked like a very important task.

Azalea didn’t even flinch when Healer Lufkin grabbed her portkey necklace and brought it closer to her eyes to examine it or when she grabbed her right arm and turned it around to where her wand holster was tight up to her wrist. 

It had been a gift from her father before she left. Technically it was an Auror classified wand holster that normal citizens can’t buy easily but her father had grabbed one for her and Heather to put their wand in. It was invisible when put on and it had an anti-summon rune along with an anti-thief rune carved into it too. 

However, when Healer Lufkin got to examine her scar again it was she who flinched back this time instead of Azalea. When the headmistress returned it was to see Azalea looking concerned and frightened at Healer Lufkin and Healer Lufkin looking dumbfounded, shocked, and disbelieving at Azalea.

Headmistress Castellanos blinked twice at the scene in front of her, “What happened?” 

Azalea for her part gave a confused look at the Headmistress which let her know that if she wanted answers it was Healer Lufkin who could provide them. 

“Here take a seat,” the Headmistress guided Healer Lufkin to the chair nearby. “Now, Artemisia, tell me what happened? What did you find out?”

“She shouldn’t exist!” Healer Lufkin blurted out. Her answer made Azalea flinch, she tried to not let it get to her but Healer Lufkin’s comment still hurt. 

“Artemisia Lufkin,” the Headmistress’ tone came out like cold steel.

That tone seems to snap Healer Lufkin from her daze state, “I didn’t mean it like that mother.” She turned to face Azalea looking apologetic, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Mother?” Azalea echoed more stuck in that piece of information.

Healer Lufkin stared at Azalea uncomprehending for a second before she groaned and buried her face in her hands. 

“What is going on?” Azalea tense up looking more wearily at both women in front of her. At first, Azalea thought it was a coincidence -Healer Lufkin being in the Academy today and Healer Lufkin coming to the infirmity at the time of her group but now that she knew Healer Lufkin was the daughter of the Headmistress, Azalea was not believing it.

After all, she had read the James Bond novel, Goldfinger, and if she had to choose what to remember -it was this quote; ‘Once is a happenstance, twice is a coincidence, and the third time its enemy action.’

“I apologize, Miss Potter, it’s common knowledge here that Artemisia is my adoptive daughter but I forgot that you are the first one in your family to attend the academy. The knowledge of Artemisia being my daughter is a well-known fact among certain social circles.”

The Headmistress answered one of the many questions she had. “It wasn’t a coincidence, was it?... What do you want from me?”

Headmistress Castellanos opened her mouth to respond when Healer Lufkin put her hand on her arm, stopping her before she could say anything.

Healer Lufkin gave Headmistress Castellanos a significant look, “You were right.”

It was three simple words but it made Headmistress Castellanos snap her head to stare at Azalea with a glint of something in her eyes, making Azalea shift uneasily in her infirmary bed. 

“It seems I keep on needing to apologize to you, Miss Potter. Even though I am sure you will have a hard time believing it, I can assure you that I mean no harm to you.” The Headmistress approached her cautiously as if Azalea could be easily spooked. “I believe it would be best if we have this conversation in my office, that is -if you don’t mind?” 

Azalea thought about it seriously for a moment. She knew truthfully that the most dangerous person in the room was her even if no one knew about it. She really had nothing to frighten about, except she didn’t want to have to resort to using her magic in such a way. She had promised herself she would never do it again after all. 

In the end, she nodded slowly in agreement and only her and Headmistress Castellanos headed towards her office using the floo. Healer Lufkin had made an excuse about having to stay behind.

“You can take a seat, I will be right back.” The Headmistress gestured to what Azalea could only conclude was her desk. 

She only nodded absentminded, more focused on looking around. The Headmistress didn’t seem to mind because she left with only an amused smile on her face, not that Azalea noticed.

Azalea was more interested in taking in the view. Based on the shelves full of books she could deduct that the Headmistress was a scholar at heart which did not surprise Azalea at all. For some reason, she always had it in her head that headmistress/headmasters and professors had to be dedicated scholars at heart.

There was a very relaxing atmosphere in the office, maybe it was due to the many pillows that were in the room but either way Azalea really liked the feeling it gave. However, what caught her attention was the view she got from one balcony in the Headmistress’ office. 

There were two on opposite sides but the one she headed towards had a large rectangular table that took up almost the whole room. In the table -a map laid across it. She couldn’t make out all of the labels in it but based on what she could distinguish she could see that a section of the map showed the school in what appeared in great detail which gave her the conclusion that the map was of the whole country.

It was very impressive, really. But it was also creepy because citizens didn’t really have privacy. She didn’t think that the public knew about it because she didn’t think they would agree to have their location to be known 24/7. And she knew it recorded people’s location because there were small black dots moving around everywhere which she had seen somewhere else before -the marauder's map. 

The map of Hogwarts also showed where people were at any time as long as they were on school grounds. The map had a name tag assigned to every dot, however, Azalea couldn't see if that was the case on this map too from all the way where she was standing.

“May I ask, what do you see?” While Azalea was too observant in trying to make out the map the Headmistress had come back and it wasn’t until she spoke as she came to stand next to Azalea that she realized it. 

“A map of the whole… country? What is this place called anyways? There wasn’t a mention of what it was called in all of the papers I read.”

“Come take a seat and let’s eat. I thought, since your group should be having their lunch break right now there is no reason why you can’t have your lunch either. I grab some common English dishes for you, I hope you like them.”

“Umm, thank you… it looks delicious,” Azalea commented as she took a seat and looked at the food in front of her. It was some roast beef with plenty of vegetables on the side and a Yorkshire pudding cup as a desert. 

“As for your earlier question,” Headmistress Castellanos started once they settled down. “Have you heard of Avalon?”

“Avalon? The mystical land wrote about in the legends of King Arthur and Merlin?... Yeah, I heard about it but I thought it was fiction. I read a book that argued that Avalon was actually real, only that back then it may have been called Avalon but now it goes by another name. Some thought it was the Isles of Scilly, others thought Isles of Man… Are you saying that this is actually Avalon? The great land talked about in the legends of King Arthur and Merlin?”

“No, heavens no. Isadora Pallas heard about Avalon from the same stories you mention and it inspired her to create a place that would be similar to the land told in the legends.”

“So technically we are in Avalon but not the same Avalon talked about in history? More like a land inspired by it.”

“Exactly, you see Ms. Potter, our founder had a great view for the future. She saw many injustices done to those who were different by witches and wizards. So she wanted to create land, a sanctuary, for those outcast from society.”

“Hence the majority of the students are magical creatures,” Azalea concluded, amazed at what she was finding out. Nothing in the books went into this much detail about the history of… Avalon.

“Indeed,” the Headmistress nodded in agreement. “And while she was alive she was able to maintain a balance between magical creatures and witches and wizards. Unfortunately, after she passed away magical creatures became anxious -thinking that witches and wizards would take over the land and start creating restrictions on them again… taking away their sanctuary.”

“Is that why there aren’t many witches and wizards who attend the Academy of Magics?”

“It doesn’t surprise me that you realize that… but, yes, you are correct. Magical creatures feared witches and wizards taking away what they had gained, so they rose to power. Their thinking was that if they struck first then witches and wizards would not be able to make them submit to them.”

Azalea frowned thoughtfully about what she was hearing, “If that is the case, then is it even safe for the other students who are witches and wizards to be in the school?” 

“You can be assured that no matter their race, I look after every student equally. Those were extreme beliefs back then but you can be assured that things have calmed down now. There will be some who will dislike witches and wizards more strongly than others but I am confident in the safety provided to all of my students.”

What she was hearing blew her mind away. It was like she was being told they have been living upside down all of this time. She grew up in a government that valued witches and wizards the most, they were thought of as the superior race while they all looked down on magical creatures. Muggles were considered even less worthy then magical creatures. 

Now she was in a different country where magical creatures were considered to be the superior race while wizards and witches were looked down upon. She had not expected it and she knew that point of view would take some time to get used to. Not because she believed in the bigotry she grew up surrounded by but just because it felt like such radical thinking that it took her by surprise. 

“It's all very fascinating, truly, but what does it have to do with me?”

“More than you believe, you see Isadora Pallas was not a normal witch, not unlike yourself.”

The significant glance the Headmistress gave her made Azalea nervous, “I don’t understand. I am just a normal witch, nothing special.”

“I think we both know that is not true… but as I was saying, she had great power and with her power, she created this land-”

“You mean, she created this land? From scratch? That’s impossible!” Azalea couldn’t help but blurted out cutting the Headmistress even though it was considered rude.

Azalea had thought she had created the government from scratch and had found this land and claimed it her own. 

“For everyone, it is impossible, especially if they tried to do it with only their power. They would most likely die in their attempt but like I mention Isadora Pallas was not a normal witch.”

“Then what was she?”

“I don’t believe you may have heard this term before, and I would like to ask for your discretion on the knowledge I will give you because if this knowledge gets on the wrong hands it could cause a lot of trouble.”

Azalea wonder, if the information was dangerous to let just anyone know then why was the Headmistress telling her but nevertheless she nodded. 

“Isadora Pallas called herself a ‘conductor’ and just like you she had no magical core.”

Azalea reel back on her chair like she had been slapped. “That’s impossible! I can do magic! I have a wand and how do you explain my acceptance to this school!” 

Alright, so she may have become a bit hysterical but who could blame her? Everyone had a magical core _-everyone_. Even magical creatures and even squibs. She was a witch and even though her magic scared her she could do magic! 

“I know you can perform magic Azalea,” the Headmistress raised her hands in a peaceful gesture trying to soothe her. “But you perform magic differently and trust me, there is nothing wrong with that. Some magical creatures don’t need a medium in order to perform magic, others need something else besides a wand.”

“But they all have a magical core and a magical core is essential to do magic -that is where our magic comes from!” 

“For everyone, yes -that is true. But you are different from everyone else Azalea, just like Isadora Pallas.”

“That’s impossible, how can you be so sure anyways?” Azalea asked more calmly. There was no way the Headmistress could know for sure.

“Healer Lufkin checked when she used her magical sight on you. She didn’t find any magical core... just like I predicted.”

“Maybe she got it wrong, maybe she just didn’t see it. Magic cores are in different places depending on the person. And what do you mean you predicted? How could you predict? How do you know me?”

“One question at a time, Azalea. First Healer Lufkin can not be wrong. When people use magical sight and look at a person the magical core is the first thing they notice because that is where all of your magic is stored so it glows more brilliant than the rest of the magic that may be circulating in your body.” Headmistress Castellanos paused as if she expected Azalea to have something to say but Azalea just sat there listening with a slight frown on her face.

“Now, about my prediction. Well, you see, Azalea, I -just like everyone else in the world- heard about the spectacular piece of magic your sister committed at only 15 months old.” Azalea tense at the mention of her sister. _Of course, it’s always about Heather_ , Azalea thought -not in a bitter tone but more of a resigned tone.

“She was too young to show her true potential unless she found herself in another dangerous situation which I thought was very unlikely. But I heard about James and Lily Potter searching for a healer to find answers about what happened that night. So I talked with Artemisia and convinced her to see them sooner -but after checking on your sister she found nothing out of the ordinary. 

“Artemisa never used her magical sight so I convince myself that there could still be a possibility that she had it wrong and Heather Potter did not have a magical core. But I had to wait until she grew up to check if there was a possibility that your sister was the person I was looking for, there had to already be some signs but when I checked on your sister, there was no proof of her being the person I was looking for… so I decided to leave.

“Except, just before I left… I saw you. You looked so upset -in fact, you were so upset that you passed by me without realizing it. I grew concerned for your safety when I saw you headed towards the woods on the small village you lived in-”

“Stop.” Azalea’s voice came out more strongly than she expected, surprising herself. Azalea knew where the Headmistress was heading with this story and she did not want to hear it. 

“You did nothing wrong, it was in self-defense,” Headmistress Castellanos whispered softly, looking at Azalea with pity. 

Azalea stood abruptly with such force that her chair tumbled over behind her. “This was a mistake, I don’t belong here. I want to go home, my father won’t mind paying the fee from withdrawing. I want to go home.”

“You belong here Azalea, in fact -you are the person that belongs here more than anyone else. You have a gift -you are one of a kind and I am 100% sure that while your sister’s destiny lays at Hogwarts, yours lays _here_. You are meant to be here.”

“You are wrong about everything. I am not special, I am just... Azalea. I have a magical core, I am just like any other witch. I have a wand.” Even Azalea could hear how out of it she sounded but it was just too much to handle. It was an overload of information.

Headmistress Castellanos seemed to understand as she gave her a gentle smile, “I don’t doubt you but I bet you bonded with the first wand you got, didn’t you?”

“How?...” Azalea felt bewildered by how the Headmistress knew that.

“Witches and wizards rely on wands to guide their magic out... A wand is a conductor, Azalea. Any wand you touch will see you as a kindred spirit because you are a conductor yourself so it would seem that you bond with any type of conductor -be it wand, staff, or stone.”

“So my wand is actually not my wand.” Azalea felt partly betrayed and partly relieved. Betrayed because the wand she carried didn’t belong to her and relief because it meant she was not destined to die a heroic death.

“I am afraid not,” the Headmistress admitted.

“I still want to leave,” Azalea brought back the topic, realizing that she had gotten distracted. 

The Headmistress sighed, “I can’t hold you here against your will.”

Azalea nodded in agreement.

“But I want to ask something of you even though I know you don’t own me anything… all I ask is that you give the school a try. Give the Academy of Magics a chance, go to classes, meet your professors and classmates. All I ask is two months.”

Azalea hesitated for a moment not knowing what to do. “Two weeks,” Azalea bargained for in the end.

“Six weeks.” The Headmistress bargained right away. 

“Three weeks.”

“Five weeks.”

“Four weeks.” 

“Alright, four weeks.” The Headmistress agreed and Azalea wondered what exactly she had gotten herself into. Azalea knew that just like the Headmistress had said -Azalea didn’t owe her anything- but she wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. Plus, quitting on the first day of school when she didn’t have any classes yet was something Heather would do -not her.

“I believe we have enough serious talks, don’t you? How about I finish giving you the tour of the school. I will give you some tips on how to navigate the school ground so hopefully, you won’t get too lost but don’t worry if you do because you won’t be the only one,” the Headmistress whispered to her in conspiracy, clearly trying to lighten the mood after overloading her with information.

Azalea played along though because she didn’t want to think about their conversation, denial isn't just a river in Egypt apparently. “That would be great but I don’t want to impose.”

“Nonsense, I offered anyway. Let me show you around our school.” The Headmistress waved her hand over the empty dishes without uttering a word and made the dirty dishes disappear. 

“I thought it was impossible to do wandless magic,” Azalea commented as they started walking out of the Headmistress' office.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say impossible. It is hard, however, but that depends on your skill, determination, power, and race. Some magical creatures have an easier time casting wandless magic after all.”

“What are you -um, if you don’t mind me asking, that is,” Azalea added rapidly before she offended her Headmistress. Forgetting that minutes ago she had basically yelled at her Headmistress multiple times.

“I don’t mind at all,” Headmistress Castellanos waved her concern off. “I am a half fire demon half-witch so wandless magic came easier to me when I was in school and had to start learning wandless magic.”

“Wait, is learning wandless magic a requirement?” Azalea asked, surprised.

“Yes, you didn’t know?” The Headmistress asked confused.

“No, I read the school manual but it didn’t mention anything about that.” 

Headmistress Castellanos suddenly had an understanding look on her face, “I believe that it’s knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Since none of your ancestors have come to the Academy of Magics there was no way of you knowing… Basically, in first year, the aim is to perform magic using any type of conductor, in second year your professors will push you to start performing nonverbal casting, and in third year you will start to start casting wandless magic. Ideally, by the time you are in your fourth year, you should do most of your casting if not all, wandlessly and nonverbal but usually students don’t get to the point until the beginning to mid of fifth year.”

Azalea was glad that Headmistress Castellanos didn’t bring up the fact that she was a conductor into the conversation. “Do all students succeed? I have grown up hearing that only the most powerful can perform wandless magic.”

“All of our students learn to perform wandless magic, some can perform better than others but in the end, all of our students learn enough wandless magic to not be completely hopeless if they are disarm.”

Azalea just nodded thoughtfully but didn’t comment any further. She didn’t feel completely comfortable in the presence of the Headmistress but she didn’t feel threatened either. 

The Headmistress was a good source of information as she showed Azalea around. The school actually had many different lunchrooms around the school. None were as large as the Great Hall but they were pretty large to accommodate a large number of students. 

There were also different stores inside the school where they sold snacks and essentials that students may need -like laundry detergent, plastic utensils, trash bags, dishwashing soap, etc. It was the Headmistress who told Azalea that students were expected to do their own laundry and clean after themselves because the school did not employ Brownies. 

They employed citizens of Avalon instead to offer more jobs and help people out. Some magical creatures were also touchy about the subject of Brownies so there were no Brownies in the school. 

“...so that is why the pans and pots were listed on the school list.”

“Yes, there is a full kitchen in each level in case students want to cook their own meal but I have to admit, it’s not really used for first years since they don’t really know how to cook. But you don’t have to cook your own meals, Merlin that would take too much time, and your studies take most of your attention already.”

“How many floors are there?” Azalea asked curiously.

“There are four floors for girls and right next to you the boys have four floors too. We have a rule of putting five students at most in each dorm and normally, there are five dorms to each common room but sometimes there are six dorms because there are more students than expected.”

“So 30 to 35 students per level?” Azalea hum thoughtfully. “That means there are up to 280 students if we are talking about 35 students per level for 8 levels in total because there are four floors for girls and four floors for boys.”

“Correct.”

“That is probably half the population of Hogwarts! If we are talking about 280 students per year and there are 7 years that means there are about 1,960 students in the Academy of Magics.” Azalea was impressed with the number of students.

“Don’t forget the students that return for their apprenticeships,” Headmistress Castellanos added amusedly. 

“How many students return for apprenticeships?”

“About 40 per year I believe is the average.”

“Well, most apprenticeships are 4 years long but there are some that are 6 years long.” 

“There aren’t many who commit to a six-year apprenticeship,” the Headmistress added helpfully.

“Well, then it would be 40 students times four because of the four years apprenticeships which would total to 160 students. If we add 160 students to the 1,960 students we would have a total of… 2,120 students.”

“You seem to be very good at math,” Headmistress Castellanos commented, the curiosity could be heard in her tone.

“I like math and Arithmancy well enough since they are very similar to one another but Ancient Runes is my passion. I want to be a Runes Master.”

“So you already know what you want to be.” The Headmistress seemed surprised.

“Not really, I don’t know what exactly I want to do with Runes but I know that I want to work with Runes,” Azalea couldn’t help the insecure tone in her voice. She had only told her Uncle Remus and Uncle Sirius about her desire because she feared if she had told her parents they would have laughed at her dreams. She knew that it was illogical and that her parents would have encouraged her but she couldn't help the irrational fear she felt of telling her parents. 

“If you really want to become a Runes Master you will have to not only study Runes but also Arithmancy and Alchemy.” Headmistress Castellanos kept a neutral tone knowing that Azalea seemed to be sensitive about the topic at hand.

“I know, I have started self-studying the subjects but there is so much I can teach myself without a professor.” 

“I would recommend taking your requirements in the first years of school so that you have more freedom in your other school years. That is what most students do, they filled out the requirements to graduate before they started electing classes to determine what they are good at and what seems to get their attention. Some students, just like you, already know what they want to be so they take classes to help them with their future job.”

“I hope that I can finish all of my requirements by the beginning of my fourth year at most.”

“ That is an ambitious goal. I wish you the best of luck.” The Headmistress didn’t remind Azalea that hours ago she had demanded to go home. She took it as a good sign that Azalea was thinking of her future in the Academy.

“Thank you.”

“I do believe Professor Ritcher should be heading towards the first-year dorms so how about we make our way there now. Pay close attention because you will have to make your way from your dorm to here later tonight for dinner,” Headmistress Castellanos warned Azalea as they walked away from Pallas Hall to the area of the first years which wasn’t that far. 

Apparently, the younger you were the closer your sleeping quarters were to Pallas Hall. The older you got the more privacy you got. The dorms for the apprentice were inside the mountain along with some of the professor’s quarters. Some professors slept in the castle itself just in case of an emergency, Professor Ritcher had the _‘pleasure’_ of sleeping near the first years -and yes, Azalea was being sarcastic. 

Once they made their groups at the end of their first year they were given a day where their group had the chance to scout the whole castle for a dorm to claim as theirs. It would be their dorm for the rest of their school years so they had to be very careful of the location they pick and they had to move fast because every group wanted the best dorm available.

“Now there is no password for this door,” Headmistress Castellanos gestured to the brown-reddish wooden door. “It just leads to this hall that has the four doors that lead to a certain level. The first door indicates the first floor, the second door leads to the second floor, and so on. The left door to the door we just came through leads to the boys' dorms which leads to basically the same hall with four doors to their perspective doors.”

“Are boys allowed in the girls' dorm and the girls in the boys' dorm?”

“We are not as strict as other schools about that rule. Once you create your groups you will share a common room with boys and girls, groups of only one gender are rare, so we don’t enforce the rule too much. However, some girls may not be comfortable with boys in their common room so all I ask is that you take the opinion of your roommates into consideration.”

Azalea nodded obediently. It was the courteous thing to do after all. 

“Those doors that lead directly to your common room can only be open to those that sleep there, if you want to let someone else in you will have to open and hold the door open for them to come in. Any questions?”

“Um, none that I can think of,” Azalea admitted sheepishly, knowing that she had asked the Headmistress tons of questions already.

“Alright, then inside we go then.”

Azalea didn’t have to ask which floor she was in as Headmistress Castellanos opened the first door leading to the first floor.

The first thing Azalea saw was the back of Professor Ritcher with the girls from her group facing her as they paid attention to what Professor Ritcher was telling them. What she saw next was the kitchen in the back. There was a rustic kitchen island counter with eight chairs tug underneath it. The kitchen wall contains a lot of cabinets and the top counter that align the wall in a ‘U’ shape contains two large sinks on opposite sides. 

“I apologize for interrupting Stefen, I was just returning Miss Potter back to her group.” Headmistress Castellanos gesture for Azalea to take her spot in her group which she did wearily as it was not easy to ignore the looks directed at her from everyone in her group, at least every girl in her group -as the boys were not there.

“Not at all Headmistress, thank you for escorting Miss Potter back,” Professor Ritcher thanked the Headmistress politely but Azalea knew that he was annoyed -if at the Headmistress or her… or maybe even both, Azalea didn’t know.

“No problem, carry on then. I will see you all at dinner tonight.” The last part the Headmistress directed towards the children who all bow slightly towards the Headmistress as she left. This time Azalea wasn’t taken by surprise so she was able to bow back at the same time as everyone else did. 

Now that she was facing the entrance door to the common room she could see the fireplace to the right side of the room. In front of the fireplace, there was a comfortable brown sofa facing it directly with two loveseats on either side of the sofa and a table right in the middle of them. The left wall contained bookshelves that were already filled with books and Azalea guessed that those books contain important information that students -especially first-years- should know since it appeared that this school did everything for a reason so she promised herself she would take a look at them at some point. There were also single study desks lining the left wall.

“As I was saying, you will go search for the door that contains your name, that will be your dorm. There are 34 of you so one dorm will only have four students but everyone else should have 5 students to a dorm. If you wish to switch dorms you better have a legitimate excuse because I will not be switching students to different dorms only because they want to be closer to their _friends…_ do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Professor Ritcher.”

“Yes sir.” The responses differed between the two but everyone gave a verbal reply without him having to tell them to speak up which seemed to satisfy him. Azalea was reminded of military school funnily enough. 

She never went to one or saw one but she had read about them and had at one point thought about going to one only because she thought it would make her into a decent human being and make her parents proud. 

But that little crazy idea was swiped away when she read about all the exercises they did. Azalea was not a sporty girl, she preferred to cozy up and read a book. She had the urge to laugh at the ironic situation she found herself in because the Academy of Magics was feeling more and more like a military school. 

“The goal of the Academy of Magics is to prepare you for life which is why you are in charge of keeping your dorms neat, doing your own laundry, and making sure you look presentable at all times. You have to always remember that now that you are a student of the Academy of Magics you represent this school. I expect _pressed_ uniforms, _shined_ shoes, _and_ immaculate cleanliness. If you don’t know those spells you better learn them… and _fast_.”

Professor Ritcher surveyed them and Azalea felt like his gaze could see if they were worthy or not and unfortunately for her, she didn’t think Professor Ritcher thought she was worthy. 

“Dinner will be served at 6 sharp so I expect you to be there on time with your uniforms on and with your best table manners. You have 1 hour until then in which you may do as you please. If I were you I would use this time to settle down and prepare for tomorrow.”

“Yes, professor Ritcher.” They said as one and gave him a slight bow before he left. Azalea of course had trouble keeping up because she was not used to such extreme manners, she knew how to be polite but this felt more strict. She stumbled a bit with getting the words out but she spoke super soft so it wasn’t like it mattered. 

For a moment they all stood awkwardly among themselves not sure of what to do but the silence was broken by the same girl who had glared at Azalea.

“Come on Melanie and Mackenzie, let’s find our dorm,” she spoke in a haughty tone that Azalea considered may be her normal tone. 

Melanie and Mackenzie turn out to be two other fairy girls based on the hairstyle and they even look very similar to the girl that called their name. They had greenish skin color with brown hair and brown eyes but they all had different shades of brown for both hair and eyes. 

Azalea didn’t want to assume but they looked like triplets which weren’t too shocking because magical creatures could have multiple babies at once, unlike witches who could only carry twins at most in any pregnancy.

It seemed that the girl speaking was the cue for everyone to search for their dorms. Azalea took the opposite hall the girl who had glared at her took and really wished that they didn’t share a dorm together. As she checked on doors she noticed that there were some students who definitely looked like they didn’t know anyone and others that walked in pairs or small groups because it was obvious they knew each other. Azalea was just glad to observe that she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know anyone. 

  


Azalea was the first one in her dorm because when she went in there was no one else. Based on the name tags on the door she assumed that three of her roommates were related because they share the same last name. She was glad for her fourth roommate because it gave her someone who wasn’t related to her other three roommates. 

Her dorm had a rustic feeling to it just like the rest of the common room and kitchen. There were actually three bunk beds that had a curtain which students could pull over to have some privacy. At the end of the room she had entered from, she had two study desks right next to one another facing the entrance wall and across them, there were two other study desks right next to one another but this time facing the wall that also contained the door to the bathroom. In between, they had a small bench table. 

The bathroom door directly faced the entrance door. The bathroom was larger than she expected. It was basically broken into three parts -left, right, and middle. 

The left side of the bathroom contained three toilet stalls with three sinks directly facing each stall. Each sink had a small mirror above it but if that was not enough, there was a wide full-size mirror that took most of the wall space. 

In the middle of the bathroom was where the closets were set up and -no, they weren’t simple closets- but large walk-in closets instead! Azalea could see why it cost so much for students to come to the Academy of Magics. Unlike the marble tile flooring that was on the left side of the bathroom, the closet had a wooden floor just like the bedroom. 

The right side of the room also had marble tile flooring and that was where the showering stalls were located along with the changing stalls right next to them. There were three shower stalls and three changing stalls. Azalea was just walking out of the door to the bedroom when a grew open the main door a bit too eagerly because the door bang opened.

The girl had tan skin, way tanner then Azalea’s sickly pale skin. She also had black hair which currently she had a bob cut hairstyle and when she turned around Azalea saw her warm brown eyes. Something inside Azalea ease up on the friendly-looking girl.

“Oops,” she smiled sheepishly before closing the door a bit more gently. “Hi, I am Alice Ruiz, U.S. witch.”

Azalea accepted her hand in greeting and introduced herself the same way the girl -Alice- had, “Azalea Potter, British witch.”

“Awesome,” Alice seemed to become even more enthusiastic at hearing Azalea was a witch too. “I was hoping there was another witch in my dorm, there are not many of us as it is -so we have to stick together.”

“So I have heard,” Azalea agreed.

“Have you explored the dorm yet?”

“There isn’t much to explore, I was just checking out what was behind this door and it turned out to be just the bathroom. The closets are also in there,” Azalea gestures to the door behind her.

“You were the girl that came with the Headmistress, right?”

“Um, yeah. Some weird things came up in my health check-up so she wanted to talk to me.” Azalea shifted a bit uncomfortable at the turn of the conversation.

Thankfully, Alice seemed to understand that because she changed the conversation, “Well, let’s see where our stuff is… they label all of our belongings before we arrive so there is no fighting.”

True to Alice’s words, Azalea could see the name tags on each of the four desks and when she went to check out the beds with Alice they saw each bed contain a package with their names label on them. 

Apparently, Azalea had the bunk bed with the study desk underneath it instead of another bed. Alice had the bunk bed next to hers and her bed was the upper bed while the lower bed was for their roommate name Audree according to the name tag. 

“Oh, hey! We started at the other hall so we took longer to find the dorm. I am Aerin Liado and these are my sisters Arwen and Audree. We are winter elves from Greenland.”

Azalea and Alice were startled by the sudden appearance of the rest of their dormmates. Azalea was taken back by the similar appearance of the three girls, they all had the pointy ears that elves had and they all had a grey/white-ish color hair that was beautifully braided and their eyes were a beautiful blue-ish/grey-ish color. They all had pale skin too, they almost look identical except the shape of their faces was different. 

Aerin had a more rectangular shape, Arwen had a diamond shape, and Audree had a heart-shaped face. The truthfully look intimidating at first glance but the happy smiles and warm eyes told a completely different story.

“Nice to meet you, I am Alice Ruiz, U.S. witch,” Alice waved at them friendly from where she was kneeling down next to Azalea as they looked through their packages.

Azalea sends them a friendly smile, “I am Azalea Potter, British witch.”

“You are the foreigner!” Arwen blurted out, excited.

“Foreigner?” Azalea asked bewilder while the other girls seemed to get an understanding look on their faces. As far as Azalea knew, they were all foreigners.

“Yeah, you are the first one to in your family to get a letter from the Academy of Magics,” Audree, the last sister, told Azalea which did not help ease her confusion.

“Wow, you must be scarily smart or powerful -or both! To get an invitation to the Academy of Magics when none of your ancestors have is… impressive,” Alice said while the other three girls nodded in agreement.

“Am I the only student in our year that doesn’t have any ancestors that have come to this school?”

“Not only the only student in our year but in the whole school,” Aerin informed her. 

“You are the first student that was invited without any previous school ties since… 300 years maybe?” Arwen added to the information her sister had provided for Azalea.

“So… everyone else in the school has someone in their family that has come here?”

“Yep, both of our parents attended the school and our grandparents before them and our great grandparents before them and so on.”

“It was my dad for me. I also have an older brother currently attending and my younger brother will come here in two years.”

“Oh.” Was all Azalea could say after learning that piece of information. Now that she thought about it the Headmistress did comment on Azalea not having ancestors that attended the Academy before her but Azalea didn’t think she was the only one who didn’t have an ancestor who had attended the school.

“Awe! Look at the uniforms, they are cute!” Aerin squealed in excitement as she pulled out the school uniforms from her package. The three girls had grabbed their own packages as they explained to Azalea about the school. 

  


That seemed to do the trick as everyone moved on from the topic to look at what was in their boxes. Azalea’s box contained two different types of uniforms and each type of uniform had five copies of them. The first uniform had a white bottom down short-sleeve collar shirt, a navy blue suit vest shirt with golden buttons, a navy blue tie, a navy blue skirt with two pairs of golden buttons at each side, and a navy blue blazer with the school logo on the top left side.

The other uniform was very similar with only a few changes. The Navy blue suit vest shirt with golden buttons, the blue ties, and the navy blue skirt with buttons stay the same. The white bottom-down short-sleeve collar shirt turned to long-sleeve and instead of a navy blue blazer, this uniform had a navy blue jumper with a v-neck and the school logo on the top left corner. 

There were three pairs of shiny black rounded toe Mary Janes shoes and 10 pairs of black knee-length stockings. The other type of uniform she pulled out confused her.

“A horse riding uniform?” The other girls looked up from where they were observing their own uniforms to what Azalea was holding.

“Exciting, isn’t it? Not only do we learn how to ride a regular horse but we also get to ride wing horses. If I am lucky I may get a cute abraxan.”

“I am not looking forward to the flying lessons, I am afraid of heights,” Audree admitted shyly.

Her other two sisters, Aerin and Arwen look at her and Alice with cautiousness and Azalea understands that look. It was a look of a protective sibling looking out for their younger sibling and it made Azalea wonder if Audree was teased or bullied by other children before. She did have a babyish innocent look to her. 

They shouldn’t bother because neither Alice nor Azalea was going to make fun of someone else’s fears. “But I thought horse riding was a club and I didn’t sign up for it.” Azalea was more focused on her confusion anyways. 

“The school thinks that every well-bred girl needs to know how to ride a horse because it's the ‘proper thing’ to do, it’s part of our etiquette class. If you are interested in it then you can sign up for it but you have to get there first because they have limited spots available,” Arwen answered, clearly indifferent about horse riding lessons unlike Aerin who was excited, and Audree who dread it.

“What about the two types of uniforms? Can we switch between them at any time?” Azalea asked since it seemed that her roommates didn’t seem to mind her asking questions. 

Aerin’s aghast face let Azalea know that that was not the case, “Merlin, no! I can’t believe they didn’t tell you -the short sleeve one with the blazer is for summer, you wear it from March 16th through the 30th of September. The long-sleeve one with the jumper you wear from October 1st through March 15th.”

“Why the specific dates?” Azalea asked bewilder.

“Don’t pay Aerin any attention, during the month of October students transition from the summer uniform to the winter uniform and it’s around march when we switch from winter to summer uniforms again. It’s those that are _obsessed_ with fashion-” Here Arwen threw Aerin a pointy look. “-that follow those specific dates to transition, it’s like an unspoken rule. If you want to be known as fashionable not only do you have to look fashionable you also have to be involved in the world of fashion.”

“Please, like you aren’t obsessed with fashion either!” Aerin accused Arwen, pointing a dramatic figure at her face. Alice, Azalea, and Audree couldn’t help giggle at the dramatics of the pair. 

“The formal uniform is the summer one, except you have to wear the long-sleeve shirt instead of the short-sleeve one with your blazer. It’s something that everyone just knows but I thought you may not know.” Audree cuts in before the argument between Aerin and Arwen could escalate like it usually did at home. 

Usually, their mother would be called and she would separate them but since their mother was not there, Audree would have to make sure their arguments didn’t dissolve into fights. 

“When do we have to wear the formal uniform?” 

“We just have to wear it twice in a school year. The first dinner on the 1st of September and the last dinner of the third semester before our summer vacation.” This time it was Alice to answer Azalea’s question. 

“What about those five pendants?” Azalea asked as she pulled them out. They looked very similar to her portkey except it wasn’t a golden chair but a silver one and the diamond was smaller. 

“Those are portkeys that you can give your family members so they can come visit during family weekend. It’s five porkeys per siblings so even though there are three of us we only get 5 in total.”

“My brother, Austin, got ours when he came two years ago and he gave one to mom and dad which left us with three. He gets one to give to anyone he wants, I get one, and we will save the last one for our brother when he arrives,” Alice added.

“How come they weren’t sent home with the rest of the stuff?”

Her question seemed to stump them for a moment before Audree shrugged her shoulders, “I have no idea.”

“Alright,” Azalea accepted the answer and grabbed all of the portkeys and put them in one of her desk’s drawer. 

After that, they grabbed their uniforms and made their way towards their closets. It was there that Alice and Azalea realized how fashion-obsessed the triplets were.

All five of them peaked at each other’s closets to see the difference between them. They all had basically the same things only that some had more space than others. Azalea seemed to have ended up with the largest while Arwen had the second largest, something that Arwen seemed to take pleasure in rubbing it on Aerin’s face since Aerin ended up with the smallest closet.

“Aaazzzaaallleeeaaa…” Aerin drew her name out longer than necessary with an unsure tone yet there was a begging quality to it. 

“What’s wrong?” Azalea asked wearily as the girls seemed to gather in her closet. 

“Do you think- I mean, if you can’t mind- I was wondering if-”

“She wants to switch closets with you,” Arwen bluntly cut in, informing Azalea of what Aerin was trying to ask her.

“Oh,” Azalea said surprised but she knew that she shouldn’t have been surprised. She looked around her closet and it was a lot of space she really didn’t need since her mom expanded her closet inside her trunk.

“I was going to ask her Arwen!” 

“Yeah, next year at the pace you were going.”

“Sure Aerin, I don’t mind switching with you,” Azalea cut in before they could continue squabbling. 

“Oh! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Azalea, I owed you one.” Excitedly Aerin actually hugged Azalea who was not expecting a hug and was a bit awkward about it.

“No problem, I will go settle down on the other closet instead.” 

Seeing as everything was settled they all headed towards their prospective closets. “Are you really okay with switching?” Alice asked Azalea once it was only the two of them.

“Yeah, I don’t mind. Plus Aerin seems to really appreciate the larger space than I ever would.” Azalea was touched that Alice did look concerned that Azalea felt pressure to do something she didn’t want to do. 

“Yeah, they seem to be very girly-girls,” Alice commented lightly and they both shared an understanding smile. “I am glad at least one of my roommates is not fashion obsessed.” 

“Who says I am not obsessed with fashion?” Azalea teased Alice as she made her way towards her closet, giving Alice a short wave.

In a short time, Azalea put some order to her closet. She hung her school uniforms so they wouldn’t get wrinkles and made a note to ask her mother for the charm to get wrinkle-free clothes. She pulled out all of her bedding from her trunk and folded them before putting them on the lower shelves that were available. 

She didn’t take out all of her things from her trunk but she did pull out some fall outfits Padfoot had brought her, along with most shoes and accessories since it was easier to organize them outside of her trunk, towels, essentials like shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothbrush, hairbrush, and her school messenger bag that she had already packed with things she thought she would need for the next day.

She also took out some school supplies that she wanted to put on her desk under her bed. She worked efficiently to organize everything and she wasn’t the only one, the other girls also rushed from their bed and desks to their walk-in closets. 

She had a bit of trouble putting on her uniform but she finally got the hang of it, even the tie which was the hardest part. There was a smaller full-size mirror in every closet so Azalea used hers to make sure nothing was crooked and she looked presentable. 

“Why am I not surprised we are the first ones done,” Alice commented dryly as she stood near the door, ready to leave. 

“We should leave early just in case we get lost.” Azalea looked worriedly at her watch, noticing the time. 

“You are right, I am not too confident in getting around the school,” Alice agreed. They both seemed to come to the same conclusion and made their way to the closets, banging on the door of Audree’s, Arwen’s, and Aerin’s closets and telling them that they were running late.

“Savannah, hey, are you guys heading towards the Great Hall too?” Alice asked the group that was just heading out.

Savannah turned out to be a curly blond hair-blue eye girl who just like her hair color -had a sunny personality. “Hey, Alice. Yeah, we were just heading towards the Great Hall. I think one group has already left… these are my roommates, by the way, Kaylee Dabrowski a werewolf from Poland, Adriana Silvia a werewolf from Brazil, Adele Huber a werewolf from Germany, and Yana Vargas a half-giantess from Bolivia.”

It didn’t escape Azalea’s notice that Alice and the triplets all tense up at the mention of werewolves and if it didn’t escape her notice then she was sure the others also noticed. “Hi, nice to meet you all. I am Azalea Potter, a witch from British,” Azalea introduced herself offering her hand to everyone in the other group without any hesitation when Alice took too long to respond. 

It seemed that not only did her indifference surprise her roommates but also the werewolf girls in front of her. “I am surprised you didn’t recoil back, Great British have the worst reputation about magical creatures,” Kaylee Dabrowski commented not unkindly but it made Alice puff out a bit indignantly in Azalea’s defense.

Azalea grimaced, knowing that the UK was one of the worst countries for magical creatures. “Can’t deny that, but I grew up in a diverse household. My uncle is a werewolf so I didn’t grow up hearing the rubbish against werewolves like the other children.” 

“These are Aerin, Arwen, and Audree Liado -winter elves from Greenland, and you already know Alice, a witch from the US,” Azalea ended up finishing the introductions. “So shall we?” 

The group of 10 started their walk towards the Great Hall in tense silence and Azalea wondered how to break it. In the end, it seemed like she didn’t have to worry about it because Audree just blurted out something.

“Azalea is the foreigner student.” It wasn’t exactly the topic of conversation Azalea wanted to bring up but it did start up a conversation so it was better than nothing. 

She did notice the slight jab Arwen gave Audree for blurting out that information and when Audree shot her a worried look Azalea just gave her a smile, forgiving her for using her as the topic of conversation.

“Are you really?”

“I thought that was just a rumor.”

“How did you apply?”

“Did you have to take a test?”

“I bet it was super hard.”

“W-wait, does everyone know about me!?” Azalea spluttered.

“Well… yeah, you are the first outsider to be accepted into the Academy… no offense,” Adrianna added the last part, worry that she had offended Azalea. 

“Look at the good side, you are famous already,” Aerin tried to cheer her up. 

“Bloody brilliant,” Azalea commented sarcastically, not finding that helpful.

“That is actually not a good thing, I bet there are a lot of people already planning on picking on her just because she is the foreigner student,” Adele commented.

“But to have been accepted when none of her ancestors had attended before she must be super smart and powerful,” Savannah argued back.

“What did you have to do to get accepted?” Kaylee asked Azalea, bringing the attention back to her.

Azalea shrugged uncomfortably, “I didn’t do anything. I just received their letter offering me a spot in the school.”

That stops everyone in their track as they all turn to stare at her as if waiting for the punchline in the joke.

“You are serious?” Yana had to ask to make sure Azalea was not joking but Azalea only nodded. 

They then descended into a full-blown out conversation between all of them. Kaylee, Adele, Arwen, and Alice argue back in forth about the quality of the education Azalea had (which none of them really knew) with Arwen and Alice thinking that Azalea would be able to keep up and Kaylee and Adele predicting that she would not be able to keep up and eventually be asked to leave.

Audree, Aerin, and Savannah talked about the lack of an entry exam which led to them talking about what the exam could possibly contain. The more they talk the more absurd the exam sounded.

Adrianna and Yana talked quietly about what it meant for Azalea in her life at school which captured Azalea’s attention.

“What do you mean -the social ladder?” Azalea asked them both curiously. 

“It’s something that everyone just knows,” Adrianna told her apologetic knowing that Azalea would not know about it. “Basically magical creatures are put in the social ladder based on how much destruction they could cause and how powerful they usually are.”

“Demons are at the top of the ladder because they are the most dangerous,” Yana continued where Adrianna stopped. “Drackens come in 2nd place and incubus come in 3rd place, they are both different types of demons but they are different enough that they have their own category.”

“Vampires come in 4th place while Fairies come in 5th place due to their elemental magic. Shifters come in 6th place, elves come in 7th place with veelas coming in 8th place, then half-giants and half-giantess-” Adrianna added, keeping in mind that Yana was there too. “-come in 9th place, followed by werewolves in 10th place, bringing witches and wizards in 11th place.”

“It’s not a perfect system and there are exceptions sometimes but that is the official social ladder. Werewolves are in 10th place because they are basically witches and wizards most of the time except one night a month when they turn into werewolves -unlike shifters who can turn at will anytime,” Yana explained and even though Azalea knew the difference between the shifters and werewolves she kept her mouth shut and just listened.

“It’s an unspoken rule that you don’t approach the upper half of the social ladder unless they approach you first. So demons, fairies, drackens, incubus, vampires, and shifters get along well enough because they share a common respect for each other’s power but they usually stick to their race. Demons with demons, drackens with drackens, incubus with incubus, fairies with fairies, and so on… actually, everyone usually sticks to their race which is why it's a bit weird to see all of us together,” Adrianna commented.

“There is also an unspoken rule about minding your own year,” Yana told Azalea not unkindly. “Disagreements and confrontations happen within your year and you stay out of an upper classmate's confrontations. Every family member that attended the Academy warns us about it. Upper year classmates won’t pick on you as long as you don’t get in the middle of their business. The moment you do you are letting them know they have free reign to pick on you.”

“Basically, if you get involved in the fight between two third years the news will spread that you are free game for all third years _and_ second year students,” Adrianna bluntly told her.

“Any more unspoken rules that I should know about?” Azalea asked, feeling a bit faint. She had so much to learn and the worst part was that there wasn’t a book that could explain to her the things she had to learn because it was knowledge that was passed down from generation to generation.

“What unspoken rules?” Alice asked, having overheard just the last part of Azalea’s conversation with Adrianna and Yana. 

Out of everything that happened, Azalea was thankful that at least there was no more tension between them. Everyone seemed more comfortable talking to each other by the time they arrived at the Great Hall which they had no problem getting to -thanks to the enhanced smelling of werewolves.

There were ⅓ of the first years already present with only 15 minutes left before 6 o’clock. Azalea and her group seem to be coming in as the ⅔ of the first years pure in. The magnitude of the school was crystal clear as all of the students gathered in one place. 

Each year had two long tables for students to sit in comfortably without being cramp against one another. The 14 tables took up the majority of the space but there were still two long tables for the apprentices that were a bit separated from the rest of the regular students. There were about 8 tables put together at the front of the table in a wider ‘U’ shape that contained all of the professors. 

From a quick glance, Azalea could estimate that there were about 500 professors which was amazing to her because Hogwarts only had 13 professors if she was not wrong. In the defense of Hogwarts, there were only about 280 students in total between 1st year through 7th year.

The moment 6:00 o’clock show in her wrist watched the doors of the Great Hall close with a bang and everyone immediately stopped talking and gave the Headmistress their undivided attention.

“Welcome new and returning students, I am Headmistress Athena Castellanos. It fills me with happiness to see the halls of our beloved school be filled again with students and professors alike… through the years I have seen many great students pass through these halls... and I have seen the diversity grow between you year after year.” The disappointment was clear to hear in her voice. “So I want to remind you… _all_ of you -though we may come from different places... and speak in different tongues... our hearts _beat_ as **_one_ **.”

It was a good speech and Headmistress Castellanos’ spoke with such passion in her tone that Azalea got carried away in the moment and unconsciously started to applaud only to startle herself at the loud noise her clapping provided in the middle of complete silence.

Azalea felt at that moment that every head snapped to look in her direction and her clapping faltered a bit but just when it did someone else started clapping, that someone turned out to be Yana who as a half-giantess brought even more attention to herself. Thankfully everyone in her group seemed to pick up the slack and started clapping politely which got everyone else in the hall clapping, even the professors. 

Azalea lifted her head hesitantly and ended up making eye contact with the Headmistress whose eyes seemed to twinkle madly like Dumbledore’s. In one second Azalea wondered if the Headmistress expected her to make some miracle and unite the whole school just because she had gotten it in her head that Azalea was like Isadora Pallas. 

Azalea bloody hoped not because she was determined to blend in… even though she may have gotten a rocky start and the clapping hadn’t helped either.

“I hope that if you remember anything from all of my speeches through your 7 years of school, you remember that… But I won’t keep you waiting, I am sure many of you are hungry and exhausted. Please, just remember, the school staff is here to help you -all you have to do is _ask_.”

With that Headmistress sat down and immediately the food appeared on the table. Instead of food being placed in the middle of the table, their plate was filled with food directly.

Azalea did not dare lift her face up as she tried the different appetizers, she was probably still a tomato red from embarrassment. She didn’t know who started it but someone around her let a snicker out -her money was in Kaylee- which seemed to be the cue for everyone else as they let out a soft giggle.

“I am so dead,” Azalea couldn’t help but softly moan in despair which actually made Adele let out a snort that made her choke a bit which led to her having a coughing fit. This time it was Azalea who giggled, amused at the attention Adele was drawing. She could already feel the laser gaze from Professor Ritcher on their group.

Alice was the one who jab her playfully, “Cheer up, it wasn’t as bad as you think.”

“It totally was,” Kaylee disagreed with Alice. That led to both of them dissolving into a quiet argument that was pointless. 

“Thanks, Yana, I owe you.” Azalea instead turned to Yana who had helped her out.

Yana just shrugged lightly and gave her a friendly smile, “That is what friends are for.”

Azalea returned the smile brightly, happy to have at least one friend already. The rest of the group wasn’t bad either, her roommates were friendly and nice to her even though to their conclusion she was at the very bottom of the social ladder.

Adrianna seemed friendly enough along with Savannah. Kaylee and Adele were rougher around the edges and brutally honest but Azalea didn’t think they were trying to be mean to her. 

Soft conversation drifted among them as they changed to eating salad then the main course which followed by the cheese samples which changed to dessert and lastly they had after-dinner drinks which in the case of the underage students consisted of hot chocolate, chocolate milk, or plain white milk. 

Once they return back to their dorm Azalea headed directly towards her walk-in closet to mirror called her sister who should have arrived at her dorm by now if Azalea was correct.

“Heather,” Azalea spoke clearly and waited for a couple of seconds before her sister appeared in her mirror.

“Azalea! Perfect timing, I just finished getting ready for bed. But tell me how is school? Is it big? Small? Beautiful? Ugly? What about the students and professors?” 

The questions were not what made Azalea hesitated but the tone Heather use. Azalea knew her sister well and even though Heather meant well, her jealousy often got on the way. The hope, even eager tone, Heather uses when she mentions the words ‘small’ and ‘ugly’ told Azalea that Heather would grow angry with her if she started gushing about her school. 

In the end, Azalea decided to go with a generic description of her day, “School is okay, I can’t really say if it’s good or bad because I haven’t had any classes yet. I have met some of the students and they are fine. I only met the Head Deputy of the school because he gave us a tour of the school but I haven’t met any of my professors. What about Hogwarts? How was your ride? What house were you sorted in?”

Of course, the moment the conversation turned around so it was all about her, Heather had no problem gushing about everything that happened no matter how unimportant it really was. Azalea didn’t think the fact that the twins tricked Ron into believing a poem was a spell was important but as a good sister, she endured it. 

At least she didn’t waste her time as she listened to Heather and appeared to be tentatively listening to her by searching for her things so she could take a shower and get ready for bed. She was exhausted and the only thing she really wanted to do was lay in her bed.

“Congratulations Heather! I don’t think there was any doubt you would go into another House,” Azalea congratulated her when Heather mention she had made it to Gryffindor.

“... I will talk to you tomorrow Azalea, mirror called me again, alright?” Heather tried to give her a stern look but it didn’t work since she broke into another yawn. 

“You got it, I will call you tomorrow night, promise.”

“Night.” was the last word Azalea heard from Heather before the mirror called ended.

Azalea didn’t waste time getting in the shower and doing the last-minute preparations for tomorrow. She left her uniform out, ready to be put on tomorrow morning, and slipped her slippers on that she was very glad now that Sirius bought for her because while the wooden floor was warm the marble tile floor was cold. 

“What’s wrong?” Azalea asked as she entered the bedroom and found the rest of her roommates around Audree.

“Audree feels cage in because there are no windows,” Alice explained.

“We can ask Professor Ritcher to change rooms for you, a room on the fourth floor which actually contains windows,” Arwen suggested not looking to keen on that idea but offering that solution anyways.

“But I will not be rooming with you anymore,” Audree sniffed looking like a kicked puppy.

“We can charm the walls to add a window -I mean you won’t be able to open it but it would look like a normal window on the wall and we can charm it to reflect the weather outside. I know there is a charm for it but I don’t know it,” Azalea offered her own solution.

In one moment Audree went from sad to hopeful to sad again. “We can search for it tomorrow,” Alice added.

“You would really do that? Waste your time searching for a charm that you don’t have to?” Aerin asked amazed.

“Of course, we are roommates,” Azalea answered for both Alice and her. Alice nodded in agreement just to emphasize her point.

“Thank you.” Arwen sincerely thank them. Azalea wondered why such a small act of kindness meant so much to them but she didn’t ask since it wasn’t her place.

“Let me see if I can find something that can help you sleep tonight.” Azalea turned around to search among her stuff to see what she had that could help Audree. 

“I will go look too,” Alice added, following Azalea and leaving the three sisters in the room for a moment thinking that they may need a moment among themselves.

Searching through her things Azalea found her stuffed owl that she had brought with her. It had been a gift from Padfoot and Moony many years ago and it still looked good as new because she took good care of it. They had actually hired someone to specially craft that stuffed animal for her and it was one of her most treasured possessions. 

The owl was mostly white with some brown here and there like in his feet and outlining his eyes. The owl was charmed to let out a soft glow once surrounded by darkness and to also keep the nightmares away. Padfoot and Moony told her that they had gotten it for her during a period when she woke up multiple times through the night crying and scared but Azalea didn’t remember that time in her life.

The owl had a soothing strawberry smell that hadn’t faded through the years but the most important feature of the stuffed animal was the sounds it provided. It just seems to know what the holder (Azalea) wanted to hear, whether it was a certain lullaby or maybe the sound of the ocean waves or even the sounds of the birds chirping. And when Azalea needed to hear it, the owl would say ‘I love you flower petal’ or ‘I love you cub’ in the voices of Sirius and Remus. 

Even though the owl was very special to her she had four other stuffed animals that were just as special even though they could not do all of the things the owl could do. They were her wolf, black dog, doe, and buck stuffed animals that represented her family with the exception of her sister.

“The only things I found were my stuffed animals, do you think they could help you?” Azalea asked as she walked with her arms full of her stuffed animals and pillows she had remembered she had brought along with her. 

She didn't have much physical affection so she loved to cuddle in bed with her stuffed animals and be surrounded by pillows, sue her.

“You sleep with stuffed animals?” Aerin asked, sounding dumbfounded.

“Of course, don’t you have one stuffed animal you can’t sleep without?” Azalea asked right back.

“Our parents thought it was childish for us to sleep with stuffed animals,” Arwen admitted.

“Are you really okay with giving me one of your stuffed animals?” Audree asked uncertainly but her eyes never left Azalea’s pile of stuffed animals and there was a childish delight, plain in her face for everyone to see.

“It’s only for tonight until we find the charm to add windows, so I think that it’s alright.”

“I only have some stuffed animals I brought from home,” Alice announced as she came to the room with her own pile of stuffed animals.

“You brought your stuffed animals too!”

“Yeah, didn’t you guys? Or are you just not into stuffed animals?” Alice asked, confused.

“Our parents thought it was childish for us to sleep with stuffed animals,” Arwen repeated herself again. 

“Oh, well you can borrow some of mine until we can get you some of your own stuffed animals. We can check on the school stores but if they don’t have any then we are just going to have to wait we can go to the village near the school.”

“Can I have the owl?” Audree asked eagerly.

“Yep, it was the one I actually thought would help you the best,” Azalea admitted.

“Why?” Arwen asked as she looked over Alice’s stuffed animals to pick on.

“It has more features included that help you fall asleep. My godfather and uncle gave him to me when I was very little because I used to wake up through the night crying and scared from nightmares I didn’t remember and couldn’t explain -of course I was too little to remember that time but my uncles told me about it.”

“Oh, are you sure it’s okay for me to borrow it?” Audree asked again more concern after knowing the history behind the stuffed owl.

Azalea gave her a reassuring smile, “I am sure, you will need it more then I will.”

Azalea understood Audree’s fear, it may sound childish and unconventional to others but Azalea knew that fear was not something people could ration about… after all, fear was not rational. 

“I am going to write to my parents and then I am going to bed. I am exhausted.” Her announcement seemed to remind her roommates of their own exhaustion which they had been ignoring before and they quickly left the room to get ready for bed. She wondered who would have to wait until a shower stall was available since there were only three and there were four of them.

She sat down on her desk and pulled the necessary things she needed to write, instead of a quill she used a pen because she didn’t feel like dealing with the mess that a quill and ink made. 

**Dear mom and dad and padfoot and moony,**

**It hasn’t been a complete day away from home and I am already missing it… but most importantly I am missing you.**

**I am dead on my feet from all of the walking and even though I haven’t had any classes yet my brain had an information overload today. Apparently, there are many things that were not included in the school agenda because they are things that everyone just seems to know.**

**That is another thing I discovered today. Every single one of the students here have some type of relative that attended the Academy… everyone except for me. It puts me at a disadvantage but I am determined to learn as fast as I can and catch up.**

**The school is HUGE and I am dreading the walk from class to class, I know with certainty that I will get lost a couple of times before I get the hang of things.**

**You don’t have to worry about food, the school actually has multiple cafeterias to eat out but they suggest kitchen supplies on our list because our common room has a kitchen that we can use.**

**Dad, you are getting your Galleon’s worth. Our dorms have a walk-in closet! Not only a walk-in closet for all of us to share but one for each student! Talk about fancy. Just don’t mention this to Heather, I don’t think she would take it too well if she knew about it.**

**Since I mention Heather, I should let you know that I already talked with her and she seemed to be doing fine. Her trip to Hogwarts seemed to have been only slightly eventful only because Draco Malfoy insulted Ron and Heather took Ron’s side so I think now Heather and Draco Malfoy are school rivals.**

**She made me promise not to tell you what House she was sorted into so I won’t mention it. Our conversation wasn’t long since she was about to fall asleep when I called her.**

**That is also something else I found out. There is a time difference between where the Academy is located and back home. Technically I am three hours behind you so while at home it may be 11:00 PM here it’s 8:00 PM.**

**The students in the academy are… different. They come from different parts of the world but thankfully as long as we are inside the school grounds we can understand each other perfectly. One of my roommates is from America and my other three roommates come from Greenland. They are actually triplets, winter elves triplets! How wicked is that!**

**This school is more welcoming to magical creatures, I actually met three werewolf students already, and there appeared to be more. They seemed surprised that I didn’t hold any prejudice against them since I am from Great British but I told them that I grew up in a diverse home and I told them about you Moony!**

**I am sorry this later seems rushed and I didn’t add too much detail but I am ready to go to bed. I just wanted to let you know about my day in case you are expecting a reply from me tonight.**

**Love you,**

**Azalea Potter**

**P.S. Mom, Moony -can you tell me the charm used to create fake windows? One of my roommates feels claustrophobic because our dorm and common room doesn’t hold any windows since we are on the first floor. She could ask to be moved to a room on the fourth floor which does have windows but she doesn’t want to be separated from her sisters.**

Azalea folded the letter and shoved it inside an envelope with the names of her parents and uncles and used the mailbox to send the letter. Right afterward she climbed to bed and drew the curtains across her bed to shut off the light that was still on for the rest of the girls to see where they walked and within minutes she fell asleep. 

She didn’t feel too guilty about not telling her family about the most important aspects of her day since she didn’t consider it lying -more like she had made some omissions here and there and maybe downplay some things but it had been all so that her family wouldn’t worry about her.

\-------------------------

Somewhere else in the castle the Headmistress sat with her daughter, Artemisa -going over her findings concerning her only patient of the day, Azalea Potter.

“Are you sure?” Athena couldn’t help but ask again.

“I am sure mother, Azalea’s scar is a Horcrux. Based on the tales we have heard about the Dark Lord in British I would guess that Azalea isn’t his first or only Horcrux.” Artemisa grimace at the implications of everything she found today. Nothing would ever be the same, the rest of the world just didn’t know it yet. “You will tell her, correct?”

“No, she is too young to be told that she is harboring a piece of the soul of the Dark Lord that she grew up hearing stories about.”

“She has the right to know! If I were in her shoes, I would want to know. This changes everything… If it’s her that has the scar and if it’s her that is the Horcrux that means she was actually the one who survived the killing her _-she_ is the girl-who-lived, not her sister.”

“She is not ready to hear that. She went into complete denial when I told her she was a conductor. Azalea is traumatized, whether she knows it or not, and pushing her towards the truth will only make her dig her heels deeper on the earth… She never had a chance of knowing how life would be away from her sister’s shadows and now is her chance. I will to slowly make her see how special she is but at the end of the day only Azalea can help herself.”

“Do we have that time? We have kept it quiet enough but the rebellion is growing stronger and stronger every day. Soon the council will know about it and I am sure the first thing they will do is banned werewolves from school just because most of the members of the rebellion group are werewolves.”

Athena sighed as she leaned back on her chair, “...everything happens for a reason Artemisa. What will happen will happened and what won’t happen won’t happen. In the end, all we can do is pray to Lady Magic to have mercy in all of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The logos in the uniform pictures are actually not the logos of the Academy of Magics! They would appear in gold just like the picture but that is not the logo of the school.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait and I am sorry it seems like a short chapter... well at least to me it looks like a short chapter. I honestly don't know how I feel about this chapter and since I was in such a light-hearted mood I may have written Azalea a bit differently from the previous chapters... so let me know if you like this clumsy oblivious adorable Azalea and if you would like to see more of her. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> P.S. More notes at the bottom

* * *

It took Azalea a moment or two to realize where she was when her alarm went off the next morning. It took her another second to look at the time and groan, she almost wanted to kick her feet in a tantrum for having to wake up so early. It was only 6:00 A.M. but she thought it was best to wake up extra early on her first day of school -she was regretting that decision now.

Nevertheless she grudgingly got out of her bed, climbing down the stairs of her bed and realizing in her sleepy mind how dangerous that was for students who were more asleep than awake in the mornings.

By 6:30 A.M. she was ready to go and even though she was irritated at having woken up so early she was more awake and in the end she decided to check on her mailbox to see if her parents had responded to her letter. 

She didn’t know if they had replied to her letter last night or today in the morning since back home it would be 9:30 A.M. already but there were a letter and a package waiting for her. Azalea had just sat down to open the letter first when her roommates started to stir awake and went to get ready themselves.

**Dear Azalea,**

**This is a letter from all of us. First, we want to say that we miss you very much too! The house is not the same without you and Heather around and it’s only been a day. I don’t know how we are going to last until winter break. But don’t worry about us, we will manage, we have our jobs anyway and that should keep us plenty busy while you are away.**

**I know you mention your school is large, but is it larger than Hogwarts? I understand that you were tired last night but once you find the time don’t hesitate to write us a letter with more details about your school. It sounds all very fascinating, especially hearing about the tolerance for magical creatures your school has, I know we are all curious to hear more about it.**

**Hey there Flower Petal! I hope you are settling down alright. You were right, we were all waiting for your letter to arrive, Remus and I even stayed over last night just for the occasion. I don’t think you are too far away from us since there is only a time difference of three hours, I have to admit Flower Petal, it makes me anxious to know that if anything happens to you we will not be able to reach you. So take care of yourself, alright? I know I told you that you didn’t have to write weekly letters home as Lily told you but at least send a note each week even if it only says ‘I am doing well’ just to ease our worry about you. I love you~SB**

**Hi cub, if you must know Sirius took the letter from Lily before James could have his turn to write to you and now he is chasing Sirius around the house so I am taking this time to write to you instead. We all miss you greatly, even if it’s just been a day. The package you received is actually from me, open it while you are alone. I thought I would send some of my old school notes to help you out with a problem you mentioned to us in your letter. When you see my notes you will think that it would be something James or Sirius would do but the truth is that I was the best marauder out of the group… even if they deny it to their last breath. I will stop writing now because even if you can’t see it, your mother is giving me a stinky look as she is reading over my shoulder. Take care of yourself~RL**

**Hey there fawn, I know everyone already mentioned it but we really do miss you. I am sorry that you find yourself at a disadvantage at school only because you are the first one in the family to attend. But I am completely confident that you will rise up to the challenge and show everyone that you are just as good as everyone else. You're too much our daughter to quit without even trying, stubbornness practically makes up your blood. After all, your mother was stubborn enough to refuse to go out on a date with me until our seventh year and I was stubborn enough to chase after her all of those years without faltering.**

**Based on your letter I can see that I am getting my ‘Galleon’s worth’ as you say it. If the students are from all different countries the Academy is probably an international boarding school and I am happy to know that you will be exposed to different cultures. The fact that they don’t seem prejudiced against magical creatures earns them a point in my eyes. Be careful and take care of yourself. If you need us to send you something just let us know and if you need more money do not hesitate to let me know. By the tuition price and the knowledge of international students, I can imagine that students come from wealthy families so things may be more pricey there than usual and I don’t want anyone picking on you, thinking that you are not from a well-off family like they are.**

  
  


**With all of our love,**

**Mom**

**Sirius**

**Remus**

**Dad**

**P.S. The spell you are looking for is ‘Imitatito Fenestrosion’ and you have to outline the shape of the window you want to make while your wand touches the wall, don’t forget you have to say the incantation 3 times. This is the simplest version that Remus and I remember which we think you and your roommates may be able to perform on your own. You will probably have to renew the spell every so often because of it, if you want to accomplish something that will last longer and look more realistic you will have to involve runes in your search. I know you are good at runes but always be careful, especially when you are not being supervised.**

**P.P.S. Remus is not the best marauder, I am ~JP**

After reading the letter she folded it neatly and tugged it into a desk drawer along with her packet from home so she could open it later.

“Come on guys! We are running late already,” Azalea called out to the rest of the girls who seemed more awake after rushing to gather all of their stuff, adrenaline was a gift sometimes. 

“We are so late, should we just head to class and skip breakfast?” Aerin wondered nervously.

“If we run we will get to the Great Hall in 10 minutes tops, if we don’t get lost we will take 15 minutes to get from the Great Hall to our first class. That would be 25 minutes in total and it’s 6:50 already, we definitely don’t have time.” Arwen was actually the one who quickly made the calculations. 

“Skipping breakfast it is then,” Alice declared but didn’t seem keen on not eating.

“Didn’t you bring snacks with you?” Azalea wondered since she had not lied to her mother when she said she packed chocolate and books which was all she needed to survive. Eating chocolate first thing in the morning wasn’t the healthiest decision but it was better than nothing.

“Of course!” Arwen actually slapped her hand against her head as she remembered. “Airen did you pack the snacks?”

“No, I thought you were going to pack them!”

“I told you to pack them!”

“I told you I couldn’t because my clothes were taking up most of my space!”

“And I told you that I couldn’t because my books were taking up most of my space!”

“I thought I was supposed to pack them?” The timid voice of Audree seems to stop the argument between the other two sisters who turn their angry gaze at her.

“So did you?” Aerin and Arwen actually manage to ask the same question at the same time with the same demanding tone in their voice and Azalea wondered how they did it. 

“No, I forgot,” Audree admitted sheepishly. 

For a moment there was complete silence in the room before Azalea couldn’t help it and a snort left her mouth. That seems to be the cue for Alice because she burst out laughing. Azalea decided at that moment that the triplets were hilarious. 

“I only brought candy with me, mostly chocolate but you can have some if you want,” Azalea offered them as they all walked back to their closets. 

“My mom actually packed some healthy bars to snack on that I wasn’t expecting to eat but -boy, am I glad now that she snuck them in there.”

“Can I actually have a bar or two please?” Azalea asked.

“Can we too?” Aerin asked for all three of them. 

Alice did not mind one bit sharing the snack bars that her mother had packed for her and in 5 minutes they were all snacking on a bar and they had their own filled water bottles at hand while they made their way to their first class. 

Since they didn’t waste the 10 minutes to go to the Great Hall they arrived at their classrooms with a few minutes to spare which was still cutting it close but at least they were not rushing in at the last second like the last group of students. 

The classroom held single desks neatly lining up in columns facing the front of the class. When Azalea and her friends arrived, most of the desks towards the front and towards the back were taken already so they had to find a seat in the middle section. From a quick glance, Azalea realized that the students in the room were the same ones in her group yesterday.

At exactly 7:15 the professor who stood in the front of the room flick her wrist and the doors of the room bang close making some students jump in surprise at the loud noise. The room was already completely silent, everyone was feeling too nervous about their first class to try to talk to their neighbors. 

“Good morning students I am Professor Adan, your proctor for your magical theory exam. As many of you know, this week is filled with exams for you -this helps professors understand where you stand in your studies. For someone who starts at the very beginning, you will start with pure magical theory which is the foundation of your learning. After you have a firm grasp on the foundation the class will separate into three main subjects -Transfiguration, Charms, and Defence Magic. Your professor will tell you more about their class once you are placed in your correct class level. Your writing exams are administered in your first class in each subject, your practical exams are administered the second time you have each class. So today you are taking the writing exam, Wednesday you take your practical exam in this class.

“This packet you will be given has questions from level 1 through 15 -answer as many questions as you can in the next 55 minutes, spelling  _ does _ count. If you don’t know the answer to a question, skip it and move on, if you have time in the end -which no one ever does- you can go back and make an educated guess. It's best that you answer the questions you  _ know _ the answers to -after all, we want to know what you know, not what you can guess correctly. 

“Be as precise in your answers as you can be, so don’t ramble on and don’t waste your precious time, read the directions carefully and remember to write your name on the front page of the packet -if you forget you will ultimately get a zero and start from level one no matter how much you know, you  _ don’t _ get second chances...”

Azalea gulped at the severe warning, she had never been more nervous about taking a test than she was now. She was thankful that in the end, she ended up skipping a full breakfast because she wasn’t so sure she would have been able to keep it down. Based on the other students’ faces -they were feeling just as nervous as her. It didn’t help that Professor Adan was speed talking through her speech to say everything she needed to say in less than five minutes.

“...There shouldn’t be anything on your desk at this moment, if there is  _ -put _ it away immediately. You will be giving your exam and your writing utensil so there is no need for anything else. A shield will be activated over your desk which will prevent any cheating, when I tell you to stop you will immediately put down your writing utensils, grab your stuff and head to your class. You have 15 minutes to get to your next class which so happens to be outside on the school grounds so believe me when I tell you that you will need every minute to get there on time for your next exam, now… Start!”

The moment the word was out of her mouth a green shield went over each students’ desk and a thick packet along with a pen appeared on top of their desk. Azalea didn’t waste any time putting her name on top, not wanting to forget to do it later and get a zero. 

The moment she flipped the first page over and started reading the questions her hand started to tremble out of anxiety because she didn’t know the answer to any of the questions. They seemed too broad and she felt completely inadequate, something that she hadn’t felt in a long time -at least not when it came to her knowledge. 

_ What is magic? _

_ Where does magic come from? _

_ List the myths surrounding the birth of magic. _

_ Who has magic? _

_ What is a magical core? _

_ What makes a squib? _

_ How do Wixes from the mundane world come to be? _

As she flipped the first couple of papers the questions seemed to continue with the same pattern and she flipped four pages in before she felt her eyes starting to burn. Stubbornly she blinked rapidly, trying to prevent herself from crying in the middle of her classroom when they had just started the exam.

She wasn’t going to give up easily, there had to be some questions she could answer. Still feeling a bit of hope left she skipped directly to the last page wondering if maybe there were some questions she could answer. If there weren’t, then she was just going to start guessing even though Professor Adan told them not to. Thankfully, she didn’t have to guess.

_ What is the spell to become an animagus? _

_ What are the factors needed to take into account when carrying out a Transfiguration spell? _

_ What are the four branches of Transfiguration? _

_ Transformation is divided into three sub-types, each within their own divisions and all of which overlap with one another to some degree, what are they? _

_ In Transfiguration, it is important to make firm and decisive wand movements.  _ _ True or False? _

Instead of going from front to back, Azalea started at the end of the exam and went backward. There were a lot of Transfiguration questions but as she worked further back she started to get Magical Defence questions and then Charm questions. There were parts at the very end of the exam where all three subjects were mixed together. There were all types of questions -multiple-choice, open-ended, true/false, and matching.

She felt confident in her answers and her hand flew across the pages trying to answer as many questions as she could in the limited amount she had. The green shield over her desk actually showed a timer counting down in front of her face as if to taunt her that she was running out of time. 

While answering multiple true or false questions a small part of her brain that was not focusing on answering those questions calculated how much time she had to finish a page in the 55 minutes she had in order to get to all of them and her brain came up with the answer of fewer than two minutes. 

“Stop.” The moment the words rang through the room everyone scramble to gather their things. Azalea quickly headed towards her next class with Alice and the triplets.

“So how did you think you did?” Arwen was the one to ask as they hurried to their next class, Herbology. They were taking Professor Adan’s advice to heart and were speed walking their way to their class even though they may look a bit silly doing so. Alice and Azalea definitely did since they had shorter legs compared to the triplets. 

“I finished the magical theory section without a problem and Charms was my strongest subject but I am not too confident with how I did in Defense and Transfiguration,” Alice answered truthfully. “What about you Arwen?”

  
  


“I felt confident in all of my answers, except the questions were getting harder as I got half-way through the packet but time ran out before I could get to a question I could not answer.”

“I didn’t haven’t trouble with magical theory and Charms but I struggle with Defense and Transfiguration. They are my worst subjects,”  Audree piped in.

“Transfiguration is actually my best subject so I am confident in those questions I answered. Charms was easy enough but I definitely struggle with Defense,” Aerin sighed. 

Her new friends didn’t know but her sisters knew that their parents were not going to be happy with her when she didn’t advance further in her studies at a fast paste like they expected her to. As the firstborn, her parents expected more from her than her sisters but it was actually Arwen who got the brains out of the three of them. 

“What about you Azalea? How did you think you did?”

“Umm, I think I did alright… I have a question though, what are wixes?” Azalea asked and regretted asking seconds later at the looks she received for her question. Arwen actually stumbled and it was only Aerin’s quick reflex that saved her from splashing her face on the floor. “What?” She asked self-consciously.

“Er… Wixes is the gender-neutral term we use to refer to witches and wizards. Weren’t you taught that?” Alice asked gently but curiously.

“What school did you attend?” Arwen asked ghastly, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

“Arwen!” Aerin scolded her sister, for all they knew Azalea could have come from a family that was tight in money and was only here on a scholarship. Aerin didn’t care and she was sure neither did her sisters, after all, they all knew there was more to a person than the number of Galleons in their vault.

“It’s alright,” Azalea easily shrugs off their reaction. “I went into a muggle school to learn the basics and any magical knowledge I have comes from reading books since I never officially had a tutor but my uncles were unofficially my teachers too, you could say,” Azalea explained.

Many (if not all) magical children that enter Hogwarts were not taught at home since they already knew the basics were going to be taught at Hogwarts. All of the children started from ground zero no matter what, it was something done to not discriminate against muggleborns who were at a disadvantage because they were just introduced to the magical world. 

Her sister had some tutoring because she kept on having too many accidental magic episodes. Azalea wanted to listen in when Heather’s tutor came to their home to teach Heather but she was never allowed. So instead she read anything she could get her hands on and since the Potter family had accumulated a lot of knowledge over centuries -she had plenty of resources at her fingertips. Remus and Sirius also liked to talk with her about magic theory -different from the magical theory she read questions about today in her exam. 

“I hope you are a fast learner than since you are at a disadvantage right now compared to us who all have studied magic before attending the Academy of Magics. Some have studied as early as 7 years old,” Arwen commented not unkindly. 

It still got her an elbow from Aerin who hiss at her sister, “Arwen, stop talking.”

“What! I was just stating the truth,” Arwen defended herself, and just like that, both sisters started bickering at each other. The three other girls looked at the two sisters with exasperation but let them be.

“It’s alright, Azalea. I am sure in no time you will catch up with the rest of us and even surpass us.” Audree padded Azalea’s arm in encouragement and Azalea couldn’t help but smile softly at the other girl. Azalea was finding herself liking Audree’s personality and she felt lucky to have been roomed with them because Alice, Aerin, and Arwen were not bad either. 

\--------------------------------------------

“Neat!” Alice giddily exclaimed as they entered a classic american diner. There were neon lights outlining the ceiling, the walls were a teal color, the booths and bar were red and white while the floor had a typical white and black square pattern, and there was a jukebox where some older students were gathered around it to pick a song to play.

“It has its charm, I suppose,” Kaylee commented, not impressed with the set up. 

They had just finished their writing Herbology exam and they had one hour for lunch. Azalea had remembered she had passed by the diner when the Headmistress was giving her a tour so she asked her friends if they wanted to eat lunch there. Savannah, Adriana, Yana, Adele, and Kaylee had tagged along with them.

“I, for one, think it's lovely,” Aerin commented, shooting Kaylee a look. Azalea could see that those two were going to get along with each other like fire and ice… which meant not at all.

“It’s lovely, I can’t wait to try all of the different cuisines the academy offers,” Savannah excitedly piped out as they took a seat on an empty booth they found. The diner was pretty big which was a good thing as students kept on pouring in. 

“So how does everyone feel about the exams so far?” Arwen asked the group as a whole and that seemed to open the conversation for everyone as they all started talking about their exam. 

Azalea kept her response short about her magic theory exam and thankfully her roommates kept quiet about their previous conversation. She had more to say about her Herbology exam though. 

“I feel confident that I have at least past level one of Herbology,” Azalea told Yana as the two converse with each other.

“Don’t beat yourself too much if you didn’t. Herbology is usually the class everyone starts on level one. Not many see the importance of this branch of magic, even those who want to be pioneers.”

“But you don’t agree with that sentiment, right?” Azalea questioned her friend, hearing the odd tone Yana held in her voice.

“...No, I guess I don’t,” Yana answered hesitantly.

“That’s good, I personally think that every branch of magic has something to offer. Every branch has its advantages and disadvantages. It’s like those who prefer casting magic to potions, they don’t see the importance of learning potions but potions have a lot to offer… I had a friend back home, more like a godbrother, and he loves Herbology. He has a gift for it too but his grandmother doesn’t see the usefulness of it. I am hoping that now that he is at Hogwarts he will be able to spread his wings and hopefully find someone that would encourage him to continue his passion in Herbology.”

Neville was her mother’s godson so he visited their home once in a while. Heather, who was a loud and hyperactive child, overwhelmed Neville who was more quiet and gentle. Thankfully Heather was always distracted by someone else so she left Neville alone and one time Azalea had approached him and the two got talking. The rest you could say was history.

Azalea could admit that she was guilty of not really caring about Herbology until Neville came into her life. The boy just spoke of the subject so excitedly that Azalea herself felt enthusiastic about the subject. That was why she had been able to answer so many of the questions in their Herbology exam. She made a mental note to write Neville a letter and thank him for shoving his Herbology knowledge into her brain.

“What about his parents?” Yana asked with more interest.

“They both encourage his passion in Herbology but they both work full time and their work is very demanding so his grandmother watches over him most of the time.”

Her Aunt Alice was an Unspeakable and her Uncle Frank was a Hit Wizard. Both jobs were very demanding but they love their job so they would not quit, even if it meant spending less time with their son. Something Azalea wonders if they love their jobs more than their son. Azalea didn’t hold it against them since it wasn’t any of her business but she wonders if Neville would ever grow to resent his parents for choosing work over him. 

Azalea felt worse when she told Neville she wasn’t going to go to Hogwarts than when she told her sister. She remembered how Neville’s face had crumbled down when she had told him the news and how he had tried to put a brave face so that she wouldn’t feel bad for not going to Hogwarts with him. She promised herself to write him a letter tonight and send it to her parents for them to post it for her. 

“Ah, are you feeling homesick?” Yana whispered quietly to get to not bring attention to their conversation. 

“I-I, yeah. I am kind of missing my family. How pathetic, only a day has gone by and I am already missing them,” Azalea chuckled humorlessly, blinking rapidly so tears would not fall.

“It’s okay, there is nothing pathetic about missing home,” Yana told her gently. “I am sure many of us miss home already even if we may not act like it. I know I miss my mama’s warm smile as she goes around the house cleaning and my papa’s soothing voice as he reads us a story in the evening… I even miss my little sister’s nagging,” Yana ended roughly as she tried not to cry.

Azalea felt bad for making Yana sad and almost bring her to tears. _Almost_ being the keyword because seeing that Yana was going to burst into tears any second Azalea panicked and tried to reach Yana’s hand to pad it in comfort but ended up bumping into one of the cups on the table.

The liquid inside the cup spills right into Adele’s lap making the girl in question shrink and jump up from her chair -Azalea standing up right behind her, apologizing over and over again panicking more at the accident she had caused. 

“Get off of me! Get off of me!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Azalea kept on apologizing trying to dry Adele’s uniform with some napkins from the table as Adele tried to shake her off. Adele’s demand finally registered in Azalea’s brain and she jumped back like she had been burned but before she could stop herself thinks about how much she wants to dry off the wet spot in Adele's uniform and her magic rising up to her silent command before Azalea could stop it.

“Woah, did you perform wandless magic?” Adele asked, shocked when she didn’t feel her uniform wet anymore.

“No I didn’t,” Azalea replied simply because her brain was not coming up with an excuse at the moment… actually her brain seemed to have taken a vacation at the moment.

“Yeah, you did,” Adele insisted.

“No, I didn’t,” Azalea could only repeat.

“Yeah, you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“I saw you do wandless magic!”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“No, I didn’t”

“Yeah you did- wait, what?”

“What?”

“Argh, you're confusing me!”

“Well, look at the time!” Alice exclaimed hastily getting up from her chair. “We should be going now. See you guys later though, it was nice to meet you. We should do something like this more often. Bye now!” Alice spoke nonsense as she practically ran out of the diner pulling an unresponsive Azalea with her and with the triplets right behind them. 

They ran until they were sure they were a good distance away before they came to a stop. Alice and Azalea were panting more heavily than the triplets and for a moment no one says anything until Alice snorts and then starts laughing her head off with the triplets right beside her. 

Azalea could only stare in confusion at her laughing friends. She expected them to be mad or embarrassed by her but instead they seem… fine. 

“Oh Merlin, you should have seen Adele’s face!”

“The whole diner was looking at us!”

“Oh, Isadora! You should have seen  _ your _ face Azalea!”

“Something that funny doesn’t happen in real life, man.”

“And Alice, what you said at the end!”

“I had to get us out of there somehow!”

“We can’t take you anywhere nice, Azalea,” Aerin teased her and finally Azalea came to her senses.

“Oh, no I didn’t mean to spill the drink on her! I accidentally made Yana feel homesick and she looked like she was going to start crying so I was just reaching over to pad her hand when I accidentally knocked the cup over,” Azalea moan as she cover her face with her hands. 

“So not only did you spill water over Adele but you also almost made Yana cry? Yeah, I don’t think they will be inviting us out for lunch any time soon,” Arwen snorts. 

“I didn’t mean to,” Azalea tell them, looking miserable.

“Don’t worry too much about it Azalea, no one likes Kaylee and Adele that much anyway,” Aerin adds flippantly.

“True,” Alice backs up Aerin’s comment as Arwen nods along, and even Audree shrugs her shoulders in indifference.

“W-What?”

“They are not very nice and they have not been very nice to you either.” The other four girls had seen how Kaylee and Adele had taken digs at Azalea since the first night they met and how they looked down on the little British witch.

“They haven’t done anything to me,” Azalea points out, confuse because she truly didn’t see it. The other four girls share a look but decide to change the subject instead of discussing the times Kaylee and Adele had looked down on Azalea -they were truthfully not sure if it was because she was a foreigner or a witch… or maybe a bit of both.

“I am sure Yana knows you didn’t mean to make her sad,” Audree changes the subject not so subtly but Azalea lets the subject drop anyway.

“And even if you almost made her cry I am sure you definitely made her laugh with the little scene back there,” Arwen adds.

Unknown to them, the moment they had left the diner, it had been completely silent for 5 seconds before everyone burst out laughing… except Adele who wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.

\------------------------------------------

“Weekends were created so we could sleep in! Did someone forget to give the memo to the Headmistress?” Azalea whined, almost wanting to stomp her foot on the floor in frustration.

“I didn’t know you became sassier when you are half-awake,” Arwen comments as she observes her friend trying to make her way towards the bathroom with her eyes half-open. “You are still clumsy though,” Arwen couldn’t help but snicker when Azalea trips on thin air and landed on the floor with an ‘ouf’ and continued to lay there after a minute passed.

“Honestly, I would think you were a more morning person Azalea since you always wake up before us,” Alice comments as she comes from the bathroom door. 

“Now we know Azalea’s secret. She only wakes up before us because it takes her longer to wake up,” Aerin teases coming right behind Alice.

“Bloody hell, did she actually fall asleep on the floor?”

“You are not british,” Arwen points out as she tilts her head to look curiously at Alice. “Why are you cursing like a brit now?”

“What? I like the way the brits curse and there is no rule that says you have to be a brit in order to curse like a brit,” Alice defends herself.

“And where are you learning to curse like a brit? Definitely not from Azalea who I don’t think knows what a curse word is, to begin with.”

“Actually the only curse word I know is bloody hell,” Alice admits a bit embarrassed, shrugging her shoulders.

“Honestly you two, can we focus on the problem,” Aerin interrupts their conversation as she gestures to Azalea and Audree. “How are we going to wake them up?”

While Azalea seemed to have fallen asleep where she fell, Audree was hugging one of the bed poles, snoring softly. Arwen had been successful at getting them out of bed but apparently, those two could sleep anywhere. 

“Don’t worry, I got a plan.”

“Er, Arwen what are you going to do?... Wait, I don’t think that’s a good!-” Alice cut herself off as Arwen pours water over Audree’s face first making the poor girl splutter in shock. 

“You have 10 minutes to get ready or we are leaving without you!” Arwen basically shouts in Audree’s face making the girl jump in surprise but it seems the words register because the wet girl bolts through the bathroom door to get ready.

“Don’t worry this is a usual trick we use on Audree back at home, we say 10 minutes but she will probably be ready in 20, unfortunately,” Aerin tells Alice so that the girl does not get alarmed by what happened, before turning to her sister. “Are you going to try the same trick with Azalea?”

“Why not? It may work,” Arwen shrugs as she walks towards Azalea and pours water on her face. “You have 10 minutes to get ready or we are leaving without you!” Arwen shouts to Azalea just as she did to Audree and to the amusement of the three awake girls Azalea reacts just like Audree did -she bolts through the bathroom door.  They look at each other for a moment before they start laughing. 

However, even if Azalea and Audree had reacted the same way they definitely took it at different levels of seriousness.

Azalea was the one to come through the bathroom door first, she changed from her pj's and had put her hair on a ponytail but she came out jumping on her right foot as she tried to put her shoe on her left foot and with a snack bar on her mouth. 

She hummed triumphantly when her foot went inside her shoe but apparently, she was too early to celebrate her victory because in the next moment her face met contact with the floor for the second time that morning. She groaned but quickly sat up, finished tying both of her shoes, swallowing the last piece of her bar, and lifted herself to her feet looking quite pleased with her accomplishment.

“Done, we can go now,” Azalea declared with a smile. The other three girls could only stare at her in disbelief. “...what?”

“Er, Azalea you know that when we said 10 minutes we didn’t really mean it, right?” Alice asked wearily, thinking that maybe the witch would get angry with them for rushing her but Azalea only blushed and looked at them sheepishly.

“Um, I guess I took you literally,” Azalea confesses before brightening up. “That means I actually time to eat more snacks and get something to drink.”

With a smile, their friend makes her way to the cupboards in the room which they have filled with food and drinks already. One of the first things they did besides finding a way to put up an illusion of a window was finding a cooling charm so that some cupboards actually act like freezers. 

The two elves and American witch could only shake their head towards her oblivious friend for her antics. They had found out through the week that Azalea didn’t seem to have a bad bone in her body. She was quick to forgive and laugh off accidents that happened to her, like the time Audree accidentally spilled ink on her uniform. 

Azalea was book smart, scarily smart actually -but the girl did not understand social cues. It was like was not used to interacting with other people so she didn’t know when someone was being sarcastic or someone was asking a rhetorical question… nor when someone was actually trying to be mean to her like Adele two nights ago during dinner because she was still upset about the spill drink accident. But they were there for her in those situations so it was alright.

\-------------------

“So how come we have to get there very early to sign up for clubs?” Azalea asked as they made their way towards the first quidditch stadium (their school had 6 quidditch stadiums in total along with 6 quodpot stadiums).

“Technically no one can sign up for clubs until 9 o’clock but many go early so that they can check out all the clubs available so that when the clock hits 9 they know what they want to sign up for since there are clubs that have limited space available but that is not always the case.”

“There is limited space in clubs?” Azalea asked apprehensively. There were a lot of students and she didn’t want to push or be pushed by others to get to the clubs they wanted to sign up for -that would be a nightmare.

“Only in some,” Alice was quick to assure her. “It’s for those clubs that have limited resources or equipment like horse riding. The school only has a certain amount of horses so they can only accept so many students.”

“Oh, so what do you guys want to sign up for?” Azalea asked curiously.

“I personally want to sign up for the debate club -no doubt,” Arwen informed them and Azalea could see her thriving in such a club.

“I want to sign up for the fashion club!” Aerin exclaimed excitedly.

“I thought you would have wanted to sign up for the horse riding club?” Alice piped out to the left of Azalea. Azalea did agree with Alice’s opinion since the oldest winter elf had expressed her joy at the fact that they were going to have riding lessons in etiquette’s class. 

“It would be too much of a chore -to rush through the madness to get to sign up and to take care of a horse on top of keeping up with school work,” Aerin explained, not looking upset about it.

“I heard there is a culture club that the academy offers which concentrates on teaching students cultures from all over the world and that they even take trips sometimes in order to put what they learn to practice, I really want to join that club,” Audree tells them shyly.

“That sounds awesome!” Azalea exclaimed excitedly, the others already knew about such a club so they were not surprised by it like Azalea was. “I want to look more into the club.”

“Just remember not to sign up for too many clubs,” Arwen caution but Azalea seemed pretty excited about all of the opportunities that she didn't pay attention to her warning.

“I want to join the theater club, I want to try my hand at acting,” Alice told her friends.

“Woah,” Azalea looked on amazed at the scene in front of her. There were tables set up everywhere and students were already milling around. 

“What section do you want to check out first?” Aerin asked them, bouncing slightly in her feet.

“Section?” Azalea asked.

“Yep, from right to left we have the academic clubs, the political clubs, the art clubs, community services and social justice clubs, cultural clubs, sports and recreational clubs, and lastly we have miscellaneous clubs that don’t particularly fit into a category for one reason or another.”

“Oh, should we start from right to left then?” Azalea asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

“Sounds like a plan.” Her friends agree and together they set up to explore what types of clubs the academy offered. 

The five girls were all curious about many of the clubs they passed by. By the time they got to the miscellaneous section their friends knew exactly what clubs they wanted to sign up. 

Arwen, no surprise, hadn’t changed her mind about signing up for the debate club -the only decision she had to make was which one because they had learned that there were many debate clubs. 

One type of debate club copied the structure and purpose of the International Confederation of Wizards and they were even given past problems that members of the real International Confederation of Wizards had brought up in meetings.

Other debate clubs copied the structure of different governments from around the world and were given the same problems that that country was facing and they debated about it. There was also the mock trial club that Arwen took an interest in. 

Alice decided she wanted to still join the theater club but she also decided on joining the newspaper club. She debated for a while if she wanted to join a community service club before deciding that she would try it out.

Aerin in a surprising move decided to not only join the fashion club but also the student government and sign up for some community service. Audree on the other hand stuck with her culture club which Azalea wanted to sign up for because she thought learning about the different cultures was neat. Besides the culture club, Audree also signed up for community service too. 

There were many different types of community services. Alice decided that elderlies were cute and sometimes underappreciated so she was going to sign up to help out in an elderly center. Aerin on the other hand went on the popular route and decided she was going to sign up to help out in a children’s daycare center. Audree on the other hand decided she was going to sign up to help at an animal shelter. 

Her friends had asked her what she wanted to sign up for but Azalea never gave them a straight answer. They had all warned her to not sign up for more than three clubs, 2 was already pushing it apparently, but Azalea wanted to try so many things that their advice went in one ear and out the other. 

They didn’t get to go through the miscellaneous section together since the large clock chimed indicating 9 o’clock and her friends all rushed to sign up for their clubs even if their clubs didn’t have limited space available. 

“Hello, do you mind telling me what your club does in more detail?” Azalea asked as she approached a booth where four boys stood looking awkward. 

“Er, yeah, so what our club focuses on is… well, experimenting… invent.”

Azalea waited for the awkward boy to go into more detail but that was all he seemed to have to say about their club. “Well, what have you invented?” Azalea asked after she looked at the table but saw nothing in display, nothing they had invented.

“W-we- well- we have tried some things out but we haven’t really been able to make anything work…” another of the four boys trailed off.

“Like what?” Azalea prompted.

“Flying shoes!” another boy of the group blurted and Azalea blink as his words register in her mind.

“Flying shoes?” She hummed as if she was asking herself that question. “Sounds like a wicked idea, how did you come up with that?”

“W-well, most of our ideas come from muggle inventions. Most of the wizarding world doesn’t welcome muggle inventions and muggle technology doesn’t mix well with magic anyway so we try to recreate some muggle gadgets with magic.” The more the fourth boy talked the more confident he sounded -and enthusiastic.

“We only started our club last year so we haven’t got any of our inventions to work. We are only second-year students so we don’t know how to get our inventions working… and, well, we are wizards so there are not many who want to join our club,” The first boy to answer shrugs his shoulders like it was no big deal but Azalea frowned.

They were brave boys and they certainly had a passion for creating because only that would explain why four 1st year students -wizards at that- would decide to create a club knowing the odds were against them. 

“Where do I sign up?” Azalea asked cheerfully. The idea of their club sounded great on paper but putting it to action had not gone as planned but she was interested in making it work. Maybe they could help create a map of the school -Remus’ package had been the marauder's old notes on how they created the Hogwarts’ map and five heads was better than one for such a big project. She still couldn't believe that Remus would give her those notes but she made sure to thank him.

“Ah, here,” the second boy pointed to the paper on the table and Azalea happily filled out the form. During her first week of school, she had learned that there was a mailbox room where students could drop off packages or letters meant for another student and they would be sorted out. Apparently, their mailbox in their dorm had a specific letter and number unique to each student which made sorting mail easier. 

“When do you hold meetings?” Azalea asked, realizing she should have asked that before she signed up. 

“Well, since it's the four of us we don’t have any specific meeting time. Do you have any preference?” The fourth boy asked her.

“Well, sunday mornings would work out for me,” Azalea informed them hesitantly.

“That’s fine, we will make sure to send you a letter with more information later on this week,” the third boy told her. 

She bid them goodbye and continued on her search for anything that caught her attention. She hesitated at the cooking club booth and after much debate she told herself that she would only take a peek before continuing on but once she learned that the cooking club not only taught students to cook but to bake too Azalea was hooked. She liked sweet things, baking heavenly goodies was a temptation too large for her to ignore. 

The club only met twice a month on Sundays from 10:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M. so Azalea didn’t think it was too much to add to her schedule. She giddily signed up for the runes club, she had high hopes for that club. They met Saturday every Saturday from 12:30 P.M. - 2:30 P.M., the meeting usually only lasted for two hours which Azalea did not mind. 

She also ended up signing up for a community service club which went down to town one whole Sunday out of the month to help where their help was most needed so they didn’t stick to helping one type of individual or organization and they did all sorts of jobs to help out. The school faculty encourage most clubs to meet Saturday but that was not always the case, some met on Sundays and some even met during the weekdays.

She had already signed herself for four clubs when she came across the werewolf club. She had promised herself that she would not sign up for another club but she couldn’t see a werewolf club and not sign up, she felt she was letting Moony down if she didn’t.

“Hello, can I sign up?” Azalea chirps cheerfully at the tall, muscular boy with a light scowl on his face. He did not look approachable at all but Azalea completely ignores that. 

“You’re not a werewolf,” the boy states looking blankly at her.

“Nope, I am a witch -a British witch,” Azalea answers easily.

“This is a werewolf club, only werewolves allow.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a rule about that,” Azalea comments, her smile diminishing slightly at missing the opportunity to join the werewolf club.

“There isn’t,” the boy informs her blandly.

“So why can’t I join?” Azalea didn’t know it but she starts to pout as she looks up at the tall boy in front of her. 

“Because you aren’t a werewolf.”

“What if I am a werewolf by association?” Azalea questions.

“What?” The boy looks at her incredulously.

“What if I am a cub of a werewolf?”

“You are a daughter of a werewolf?” The boy didn’t smell any werewolf in her the slightest. 

“Well… not exactly. I have a werewolf uncle who sees me as his cub so doesn’t that make me an honorable werewolf?” Azalea looks at him hopefully.

“No,” The boy deadpans but couldn’t help but find the girl in front of him amusing. 

“But if you were exclusively a werewolf club you should have called yourself the werewolf association instead. By calling it the werewolf club you are promoting false advertising, your sign only says werewolf club and there is nothing in your booth that says only werewolves allowed… so can I join?” Azalea asks him hopefully after spewing random words at him hoping it would confuse him and let her sign up.

“No, you are not a-”

“I’m a cub!”

“-werewolf.” The boy tells her pretending she didn’t interrupt him.

“Are you going to go away?” The boy asks her frustrated when Azalea only crosses her arms and stubbornly stares at him. “Who is your werewolf father anyway?”

Azalea completely ignored the fact that the boy got it wrong and called Moony her father when she had already mentioned to him as her uncle and answers his question, “Remus Lupin.”

“Remus Lupin, the werewolf that married into nobility?”

“You know him?” Azalea is just as surprised as the boy. 

“A werewolf that married a Lord? You bet that news spread like wildfire… He also travels a lot from werewolf community to werewolf community, helping out where he can.”

“Oh,” Azalea simply replies because she didn’t know what else to say to that piece of news. Remus and Sirius had been there for when she was younger while her parents traveled a lot with her sister and then Remus and Sirius started to travel too, leaving her under the eyeful watch of Meepsy. She didn’t know what their trips were about -but now she did.

She felt hurt and abandoned by the two men that had come to mean the world to her and the two people she had started to see as parents. That hurt had always lingered but now something inside her soothes it away. Remus and Sirius had started to travel to help others in need and she couldn’t begrudge them for that -they were not responsible for her anyway because they were not her parents. She understood, she really did… so she completely shoves the small part of bitterness and resentment she feels at the back of her mind and lockes it away. 

“So can I join?” Azalea asked again, focusing on the present happening in front of her eyes instead of the past. 

The boy sighs and Azalea’s smile grows, knowing that the sigh was of reluctance. She knows she has won. “Go on, squirt.”

“Thanks!” Azalea didn’t waste any time signing up her name in case he changed his mind. “See ya!” Azalea cheerfully waves at the boy who did not share her enthusiasm and almost bumps into a tall dracken because of it but at the last moment avoids colliding with the unaware dracken and almost trips on her feet as she hurries away.

Azalea was not near to hear the boy snort as he saw her disappear through the crowd, “Your papa must have his hands full with you.”

It didn’t matter if Remus Lupin was not biologically her father because once the werewolf saw her as his ‘cub’ in the werewolf community it meant that the werewolf was her parent. 

\-----------------------------------------

“Hey, Azalea!” Azalea turns around too fast to look at the person who calls her name and ends up tripping on her own feet.

“Oops, are you alright?” Alice helps her up when she reaches her.

“Yeah, yeah, I am fine.” Azalea quickly brushes off any dirt off of her. 

“Come one, the other girls are waiting for us near the entrance. We were worried we wouldn’t be able to find you in all of the crowd and we forgot to assign a meeting spot too,” Alice chatter as they walked through the crowd. Alice making sure to have a hold of Azalea to not lose her. 

“Azalea! Alice!” Aerin calls them out from where the triplets were standing over a piece of concrete and looking through the crowd.

“There you are, I am glad Alice was able to find you.” Aerin smiles in relief when they were only a few feet away from them.

“I am glad too, I was thinking about returning to our dorm if I didn’t find you in a couple of minutes.”

“Good idea,” Arwen approved of her plan. 

“Oh, Azalea! I signed you up for the culture club too,” Audree informs her cheerfully. 

… so maybe Azalea had forgotten about the culture club but what was one more club?

“Thanks, Audree.”

“Did you sign up for another club Azalea?” Arwen asks her suspiciously because apparently Azalea’s laugh sounded a bit off when she thanks Audree.

“Yeah, I found a few that I liked,” Azalea comments vaguely. “Should we head to our dorms now?” 

“Yeah, but we should stop somewhere for lunch first though,” Alice suggests.

“What are you guys feeling like eating today? French cuisines? Italian? America? Japanese? Korean? Mexican?”

“Korean!” Audree exclaims first excitedly.

“Korean it is then,” Aerin easily agreed when everyone else was fine with it.

“So what clubs did you join Azalea?” Arwen asks again as they start to make their way towards one of the most simple Korean restaurants they had seen… because, yes, the school did offer high-class restaurants that require a dress code of suit and tie for boys and dresses for girls.

“Umm, so I found this club founded by four boys last year which focuses on creating and inventing different things. They told me they were trying to make flying shoes,” Azalea tells them.

“Flying shoes?” Arwen asks with interest.

“Yeah, they said that most of their ideas come from the muggle world. They try to produce magical objects with the same function they are made for in the muggle world.”

“That sounds very interesting,” Arwen hums thoughtfully and Azalea thought she got away from her interrogation.

“So what other clubs did you join Azalea?” Audree asked and Azalea feels betrayed by not seeing the betrayal coming from the most innocent person in their group without her even knowing she was betraying Azalea.

“Well, I may have signed up for a community service club and a cooking club and the werewolf club and the runes club,” Azalea blurted out at once. There was a moment of silence before... 

“You sign up for five clubs!” They scream in her face in shock.

“Well, six clubs actually cause Audree also signed me up for the culture club,” Azalea admits sheepishly. 

“Azalea, there is no way you can juggle six clubs on top of classes and school work,” Aerin told her seriously.

“That is too much for one person, Azalea. You will drop from exhaustion,” Audree added her concern into the conversation.

“I don’t think anyone has been able to join that many clubs in… well, never actually,” Arwen comments thoughtfully. Azalea was surprised that Arwen was the most calm about the news since she kept on insisting on knowing what clubs Azalea joined.

“Will your club meetings not overlap with one another?” Alice asks with a frown.

“I have three meeting on Saturday, culture club first from 8:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. and then runes club from 12:30 P.M. - 2:30 P.M. and lastly werewolf club from 4:30 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. so those meetings won’t overlap. Cooking club only meets two Sundays out of the month from 10:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M. and the community service club meets on one of my free Sundays from the cooking club to go downtown all day to help out. The Invention club doesn’t have a set meeting time because it was originally only the four founder members but they asked when would be a good time for me and I told them Sunday so I still have to wait for them to send me more information to know what time we will have our meetings.”

“And when will you have time to eat and do your homework?” Aerin asks, not impressed with her explanation, and sometimes Azalea wonders if this is how having an older sibling watching out for you feels like.

“I will grab a bite somewhere in between,” Azalea promises.

“Let her be Aerin, if it gets too much for Azalea she can always drop off from clubs,” Arwen points out logically.

“Alright, but if it gets too much for you Azalea, you can always drop some clubs,” Aeirin repeats Arwen's words with concern shining lightly in her eyes.

“I promise if it gets too much for me I will drop some clubs,” Azalea swears as her heart fills with warmth at the obvious concern from her friends.

After that, the conversation moved on and they jumped from one topic to another. They returned to their dorm and Alice and Azalea were able to convince the triplets to do their laundry instead of putting it off. The academy was really extravagant at times with five-star restaurants and six quidditch stadiums but they balance it off by giving students more responsibility like making sure they did their own laundry and kept their room clean.

The five had a good time together that day and they even got into a pillow fight when they were cleaning their dorm… and if at the end of the day Azalea decided to not write to her family because the hurt she had shoved in the deepest corner of her mind for years had floated back to the surface -well, no one had to know. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A recent comment spurred me to get back to chapter 4 and even though I didn't think I would finish it, I actually did! I had tried to force myself to write this chapter many times over but I didn't do it until yesterday. 
> 
> I am not sure when I will update again since during winter break I did not have my muse and now that I got it back, school is starting back up for me so I won't have much time to write again in a while. 
> 
> Thanks for all of the support!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only the second week of school for Azalea, including a day full of club meetings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I have to say in Enjoy!

Azalea sighs as she sits near the front of her muggle history class. She thought a whole week of pure exams was mentally exhausting but on her fourth day of actual classes, she felt even more exhausted than she did the previous week. 

She wasn’t the only one whining about it either -usually her and her friends would gather together to work on homework and moaned about all of the work the professors assigned. 

She had done better in Herbology than expected and started on level 3 alongside Yana. She shared Etiquette class with all of her four roommates -Aerin and she had both taken Spanish as their foreign language so they shared that class as they both started from level 1. 

She shared math class (muggle math) with Alice, Astronomy with Arwen (both were pretty advanced in that class), and Language Arts with Audree. Technically she had someone she knew in over half of her classes since she was taking 11 classes in total and 6 classes out of the 11 she had at least one of her friends but she wished it was more. 

However, she knew beggars couldn’t be choosers so sharing at least one class with all of them was better than nothing. She thought starting at level one in classes was looked down upon but her roommates cleared that up for her. Apparently, it was usual for students to excel in one particular class if they already knew what they wanted to be or if they had a gift for it. 

Not every student had to be levels ahead in every class because then there wouldn’t be a point in coming to the academy. Instead, students were encouraged at home to take extra studies at home before coming to the academy -only on some subjects. As long as they didn’t start every class at level one, it wouldn’t bring an embarrassment to the family. 

Most students that come to the academy study some magical subjects and they start on level one when it comes to their muggle subjects because they are not as important in usual families. Basically… magic aptitude is more important.

“Excuse me, you are sitting on my seat.” For a moment Azalea doesn’t realize that the voice she hears behind her is talking to her until she sees some students looking in her way.

“Oh,” Azalea murmurs in surprise as she comes face to face with the fairy girl who glared at her when they were taking their tour of the school on the first day they arrived. “Oh, I am sorry I didn’t see your name anywhere,” Azalea speaks louder as she curiously looks at the table in front of her and doesn’t see any name tags. 

Azalea turns around after finding no name tag and is taken by surprise by the face the girl is making. Her eyes are very close together and some wrinkles appear on her forehead, to Azalea she looks like she is in pain. “Are you okay? Do you have something in your eyes?” 

“Do you know who you are talking to?” The girl demands to know and Azalea doesn’t think it possible for her eyes to get even closer together… but they do.

“Um, no, you never introduce yourself,” Azalea answers honestly and is bewildered by the question. Azalea knew that the two girls behind her were called Melanie and Mackenzie because the girl had called them that herself when they set out to search for their dorms. 

“Get out of my seat!” The girl practically yells at Azalea in frustration and Azalea fears that the girl will burst into tears due to frustration. She had seen it happen to her sister and she doesn’t want to be responsible for  _ that _ -so she simply agrees.

“Ok.” She gathers her stuff and jumps from her chair and starts searching for another place to sit near the front of the room. She doesn’t like the attention the little conversation she has with the girl brings her so she settles for a place in the dark corner of the room. 

“Hey, is this seat taken?”

“Um, I don’t think so,” Azalea answers hesitantly because she is not sure if someone else is going to pop out and claim that spot as their seat too. 

“I am Liam Balevski, Bulgarian incubus,” the boy introduces himself with a friendly smile and offers her a handshake. 

“Azalea Potter, British Witch.” Azalea shakes his hand and gives him a smile of her own. 

“That was cool what you did back there, not too many would stand up to Nieminen.” Azalea can only stare at the boy confused because she hasn’t stood up to anyone. “Madelyn Nieminen? She is the daughter of Mr. Nieminen, a member of the council,” Liam explains, thinking that she is confused about who he is referring to. 

“I didn’t stand up to her,” Azalea clarifies.

“Yeah, you did. The class just saw it.”

“But I didn’t, I mean I didn’t mean to… I-I only told her I didn’t see her name anywhere because I thought we were assigned seats and I somehow missed her name tag. Then she was looking like she was in pain -like something had gotten on her eyes cause she was kind of squinting so I asked her if she was okay. She looked so frustrated that I thought she was going to burst into tears because my sister does that -you know- and I thought it was best if I just moved away.” 

After her small speed talk, the boy looks at her in disbelief… and then he snorts... and then he covers his mouth to muffle his laugh as his whole body shakes with laughter. Azalea only stares at him with dread because she can’t see the hilarity of the situation.

“Well, I’m sorry to break it to you but it l-looked very different t-to everyone else. It appeared a-as if you backtalk to her when she a-asked you to move from her chair. T-Then she glared at you but y-you made fun of her glare b-by asking her if she had s-something on her e-eyes. W-When she asked you if you knew w-who she was, she w-was asking a rhetorical question but y-yet you answered it and then you made her look petty by getting up from your spot like it was no big deal,” Liam has a hard time explaining it to her with a straight face and many times he stutters as his laughter gets the best of him. 

“My friends are going to kill me,” Azalea moans as she drops her head on the table and thinks about her roommates’ reaction to Azalea apparently picking a fight against the daughter of a member of the council… even if she didn’t mean to. 

Liam is of no help as Azalea hears his muffled laughter pick up as she drops her head on the table with a soft ‘thump.’

“You are going to be a riot to be around,” Liam comments just before the professor enters the room. 

Azalea lifts her head and shoots him a glare which doesn’t look threatening at all apparently since it just made his grin widen. 

* * *

Azalea is partly right. Aerin did look like she wanted to strangle her for a moment.

After her class ended, which was Muggle History, she headed towards the Great Hall where her friends had decided to eat lunch for the day. Liam left, waving at her cheerfully goodbye, while Azalea walked toward the Great Hall like she was walking towards her funeral. 

Azalea quickly grabs an empty plate and starts serving herself when she enters the Great Hall before spotting Yana the easiest to spot from her friend group and happily goes to sit with her. Alice and Savannah are already there and by the lack of disapproval looks and scoldings Azalea assumes that the news hasn’t reached their ears. 

“...I hope we get over this chapter in class, I don’t particularly mind the history of the United States but everything else bores me,” Alice was telling Yana about her Muggle History Class when Azalea sat at their table. Alice and Savannah shared that class but they were one level ahead of Azalea so the three of them did not share the class together. 

“How was your history class Azalea?” Savannah asks her, interested in hearing her answer. 

“Well, we started going over history in Spain today. My Professor said during the first level we cover some European countries like Spain, Great British, and France.”

“Wait until you get to second level next semester, you start with going over Indian history!”

“It doesn’t sound that bad. History is history, right?”

“Well, it’s a bit different when you can’t even pronounce half of the names right -even less spell them out,” Alice groans dramatically. 

“Azalea Potter!” Before anyone could reply to Alice’s complaint, Aerin along with her sisters and another girl no one had seen before were heading their way. 

Aerin did look like she wanted to strangle her which made Azalea squeak and actually dive under the table and pop out on the other side of the table between Yana and Savannah making the witch yelp and pad her squirt down while the half-giantess only look at her with a raised eyebrow, wanting to hear just what shenanigans Azalea had gotten into now -not that Azalea was paying attention to Yana or Savannah. 

“I didn’t mean to!” Azalea proclaims her innocence before Aerin even utters her crime. 

“I didn’t think you had in you to take on Madelyn Nieminen,” Arwen comments, calm as a cucumber as she takes a seat across Alice.

“You did what!!” Alice is not the only one to shrink but she was the loudest to do so at the news they are hearing. 

“I didn’t fight her!” Azalea shouts panicking, she didn’t want Alice to think she actually got in a fight. 

“I am new to all of this so I thought we had been assigned a seat! She came…” and Azalea basically spills out what happened, waving her hand all over the place as she explains to her friends what took place during her History class and how she didn’t think she was picking a fight with Madelyn Nieminen or standing up to her. 

It's only when she finishes that she realizes the corner they had picked was all silent and that it wasn’t just her friends that were paying attention to her. She blushes a bright cherry red and quickly squishes herself between Savannah and Yana, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“We asked you how your history class was and you forgot to mention that?” Alice asks incredulously as conversation picks up and Azalea hears some snickers and laughs around her and she doesn't doubt that it's because of her.

“I didn’t forget, I just thought you wanted to hear about the class itself.”

“Oh, no, next time make sure to tell us all of the juice details first Azalea,” Arwen gives her a thumbs up and Azalea sees that the girl is trying to hold her laughter in.

“Go ahead, laugh it off,” Azalea tells her, pouting but feeling relief that even after hearing all of the trouble Azalea gets into her friends don’t want to stop being friends with her. 

She directed her comment to Arwen but all of her friends actually started laughing after being given permission by her -even the girl that came with them.

“Right, well I forgot to introduce you guys. Guys this is Camillia Lennett, she is part-fairy part-elf,” Aerin introduces the new girl to them. “Camillia you already know my sisters but those two are my other roommates -Alice Ruiz and Azalea Potter both witches from the U.S. and U.K perspectively. This is Yana Vargras half-giantess from Bolivia and Savannah Smith also a witch from the U.S.”

Everyone gives her a friendly greeting and Camillia seems already at ease with them but that was probably because she witnessed Azalea making an arse of herself. They have known each other for about two weeks but there was an easy comradeship that surrounds the group already. 

“We are going to go get our lunch, be right back,” Aerin tells them as the four girls get up to get their lunch and Azalea simply moves her plate to her new spot so she can eat her lunch before it goes cold.

* * *

Azalea grumbles as she walks towards the room the culture club was gathering with Audree right behind her. They hate waking up early in the mornings and yet they forgot that when they signed up for the culture club which starts at 8 in the morning. 

The other three girls were lucky because none of their clubs met as early as their club so they got to sleep in for a bit longer. Azalea on top of having to get herself up was also in charge of getting Audree up too and she didn’t think it would have been that hard... she was proven otherwise this morning. 

Arwen had poked her head out when they made too much noise at one point - looked at them tangled on the floor with Audree clinging to Azalea- snorted half sleepily, and went back to sleeping behind her bed curtains.

“Good morning first years, I am Ashia Abara and I am the head of this club. I’m in my 7th year in the academy so this is my last year as head of this club but I hope to continue to work with you next year when I apprentice under Professor June. I am an only child, I hope to get my master's in Blood Magic which is why I want to apprentice under Professor June, and I am from Africa. Now that I told you a bit about myself I will tell you important information you should know about our club. 

“What you should know first is that we try to cover as many cultures that we can in the seven years of your schooling. This club divides you by year so the students you see around you are the members you will see most often. For this semester and the next two, we will be meeting at the same time on Saturdays. We don’t hold sessions during the summer even if you stay for the summer semester. Next school year starting September our meetings will be held at a different time because the first years of next year will be meeting at this time.

“We can’t possibly learn every culture in the world -no matter how much we try- so we split each year by continent and that year you will learn cultures pertaining to those regions. First years always start with Africa because it’s a tradition that you will be taken to Africa for your class trip during spring. 

“When we refer to the culture we mean that you will be learning important holidays celebrated in that region, food native to that continent, the family dynamics, traditional garments, beliefs, and many more things. We don’t focus on government and laws, though you may hear something mention about them here and there. This club focuses on learning the more fun things,” Ashai Abara ends with a wink, and the other students clap politely, eager to get started.

“Alright, so what I need you to do is split into eight different groups and a 7th-year student will come to your table and start your lesson for today. Don’t worry, you won’t be getting a four-hour lecture every meeting you come to, we usually split meetings into two parts. The first half we talk to each other and the last half of the meeting we start making an item that represents the culture we are currently learning.”

Students were quickly moving to different tables, Azalea was happily pulled by an eager Audree to a table before she saw a lonely girl sitting by herself. She paid close attention to her surroundings and realized that it seemed like the other students were avoiding the girl. 

“Audree, wait, let’s sit there instead,” Azalea gestures to the table that held the lonely girl. 

Audree turns to look at where Azalea is gesturing to in confusion and tenses when she realizes just who Azalea wants to sit with.

“Azalea she is a vampire,” Audree hisses the first thing that she believes would prevent Azalea from wanting to sit with the girl. Being a vampire was one of the many reasons why the students were avoiding that particular student. 

“Oh… so you don’t think she will want to sit with an elf and a witch?” Azalea asks a bit sadly. She remembers the social ladder that exists in the school but Liam had gone to sit next to her even though he was an incubus (and she a witch) so she started to think that the social ladder wasn’t that important.

“Well, I am not sure…” Audree struggles with just how to tell Azalea that the vampire girl she wants to befriend is also the youngest daughter of the vampire royal family in Italy.

Unknown to both of them the vampire girl in question was listening to their conversation. 

“Let’s find out then, the worst thing that could happen is that she tells us to go away,” Azalea points out, getting that stubborn look on her face and Audree wants to groan out loud.

Azalea doesn’t know that if they offend the vampire girl the worst that could happen was getting a whole coven of powerful vampires after them. Either way, Audree dutifully follows after Azalea hoping that her sisters won’t kill her after they find out she approached a vampire princess -that is- if the girl’s coven didn’t get to them first. 

“Hi, do you mind if we sit with you?” Azalea asks the girl as they get to her table, acting braver than she actually feels. 

“No, go ahead,” the girl tells them quietly, shrugging her shoulders as she stares ahead. 

“Thanks, I am Azalea Potter, British Witch,” Azalea introduces herself as she takes a seat next to the vampire girl in case the vampire girl takes a swipe at them it’s Azalea who is closest and Audree farther away. “This is Audree Liado, winter elf from Greenland.”

“I’m Carina Romano, Italian Vampire, nice to meet you,” the girl -Carina- offers her hand and Azalea happily shakes it because she is relieved that the girl doesn’t mind associating with her -she completely ignores the way Audree pales even further as they shake hands. Maybe it's the way Carian sees Audree becoming paler when they shake hands that she doesn’t offer to shake Audree’s hand. 

“You are the clumsy witch, right,” Carina blurts out before Azalea could think of something to ask to start a conversation going instead of having to sit in awkward silence. 

“What?” Azalea squeaks, surprised by the new piece of information. “I am known as the clumsy witch!” Azalea turns to Audree, the question practically writing on her forehead.

“Well, we didn’t think you particularly wanted to know that,” Audree looks guilty at her friend. They didn’t want to hurt Azalea’s feelings with that information so they decided to not tell her but now Audree sees how foolish it was for them to think Azalea would not find out. 

“Why am I known as the clumsy witch?” Azalea turns to Carina to ask, still looking shocked.

“Well, practically everyone knows about the diner episode,” Carina explains to the witch uncomfortably. Carina just wanted to start a conversation with the girl that had the potential to become her first friend in the academy because everyone else was wary of her vampire statues and even the vampires were wary of her royalty statues so everyone kept their distance. Now it appears like she may have offended the witch -what a way to start a friendship.

“It was only one time,” Azalea whines and refuses to admit that she was pouting. 

“That’s because they haven’t seen you wake up in the mornings” Audree snorts, knowing that Azalea is not upset with her if she is pouting and whining. 

“Hey! You are no better than me,” Azalea huffs crossing her arms in front of her. “I swear I am not that clumsy,” Azalea assures Carina and it seems that the world wanted her to take her words back because only that would explain what happened next. 

“Hello, girls! We-” Azalea shrinks in surprise not having expected a voice so loud to come out so close to her and literally jumps from her chair. 

It wouldn’t have been so bad if the girl who started addressing them wasn’t carrying a tray with face paint which was the activity they were going to do for the day and Azalea had not bump her head right against the tray making the girl lose her grip from the unexpected bump and the paint to fall down… right on top of Azalea’s head. 

The whole room is completely silent and everyone froze at the unexpected messy accident not knowing if laughing would get them in trouble or not. 

Azalea for part tries to clean the paint from her eyes so she could open them and turns around in her chair to give the girl carrying the face paint tray a sheepish smile, “I am sorry about that, I am a bit clumsy.” She then turns to Carina and tells her, “I take back my words.” She lastly turns to Audree and tells her friend, “Go ahead and laugh, I know you want to.”

She talks too much because she can feel some paint in her mouth and tries to spit it out making her look more silly and since Audree knew that Azalea meant it when she gave her the ‘go-ahead’ to laugh Audree starts giggling which quickly turns to laughter. Carina besides her also starts giggling but tries to muffle it with her mouth and soon the others in the room are laughing too. 

The only reason the older students don’t scold the others is because Azalea doesn’t look like she minds others laughing at her, she is actually more concerned about getting the paint taste from her tongue making the students laugh harder. 

Eventually, the older students call order to the room, the girl who had the tray cleans up the mess -Azalea included- with a wave of her hand. She goes to get more paint and returns minutes later but this time she makes sure to keep the paint away from the small first year.

It wasn’t a traditional way to start a friendship or to break the ice but it sure worked because Audree relaxes in Carina’s presence and Carina relaxes in their presence too. 

* * *

“So I will see you around?” Carina asks Azalea awkwardly as they get closer to the room the runes club meeting is taking place. Audree had headed towards downtown for her animal shelter volunteer group and Carina had offered to show Azalea towards the place her rune club meeting was taking place since Azalea wasn’t too confident in her knowledge of the school and Carina didn’t have a club to attend. 

“Oh, yeah!” Azalea assures her firmly. “Don’t hesitate to approach me if you see me around, maybe I can introduce you to my other friends! If you see us sitting down somewhere for breakfast, lunch, or dinner you can always come over. I would tell you where you can find us but we don’t plan ahead where we are going to eat that day and most of the time we kind of skip breakfast cause one of us is always running late.”

“Great, I think I may have Arithmancy with you,” Carina tells her happily.

“I am on level 3 and 4 for Arithmancy with Professor Cruz right after lunch,” Azalea informs her. 

“Yeah, that is what I have too!” 

“Perfect, I will see if my friends can coordinate where we are going to eat lunch the next day so that I can tell you at Arithmancy and I can introduce you to all of them,” Azalea tells her cheerfully as she waves goodbye at her new friend. 

Carina waves right back at her and practically skips back to her room because she can’t wait to tell her parents that she has made a friend so she is going to write them a letter right away. 

Meanwhile, Azalea happily enters the room and notices the different setup. There are small tables that have two chairs at each end of them and there are bigger tables like the ones in the culture club with chairs at one side and one chair on the other that belongs to the person in charge of the group -at least Azalea guesses because that was the same setup in the culture club.

Azalea takes a seat on a chair at one of the small tables and offers a small smile to the boy that sits across from her minutes later and receives a small smile in return. 

“Hello guys, I am Finn Meyer and I am the head of the runes club. We are glad to see old members back and, of course, welcome to the new members. Our meetings only last for two hours because we know that many of you also play a sport and need to be somewhere else at three which is when most sports clubs meet.

“As new members, we don’t expect you to know anything about runes and we will teach you about them little by little. For those who already have some knowledge, you will start with a game of rune cards -don’t worry, we will explain to you how the game works. As you learn more about runes and get more confident in your knowledge you will be able to do more. Older members get to pick if they want to want to focus on creating rune wards or activate runes for a certain effect. I can assure you that all of you will eventually get there.

“Now, former members can go do what they plan to do, those who volunteer to help stay back. New members if you could please divide yourself into two groups. Those who have memorized and understand the Elder Futhark runes please step to the left and those who haven’t please step to the right.”

Azalea, along with a good amount of first years, stepped towards the left. The larger group, however, was the one to the right. It was the left group that got to learn how to play the card game and competed against each other. 

They were just about to start when Head Deputy Stephen Richter stormed into the room. One could practically see the grey clouds circling around his head by the way his eyes seem to be spitting fire and the air around him seems to be charged with energy. No one dares to move nor make a sound, lest they catch his attention.

“Go on,” he barks at them waving his hand a few seconds later, and everyone snaps their head away from him and quietly and slowly continues with their actions. The older student assigned to Azalea and her opponent gives them an apologetic smile. Azalea is sure that the older members of the club didn’t want to introduce the club to the new members in such a tense atmosphere. 

Azalea gives the older student a small smile in return but the boy in front of her focuses on his cards intently and Azalea is sure that the boy in front of her is terrified at the moment. She really can’t blame him, Professor Richter completely destroyed the easy-going mode they had going. 

“Potter!” It was not only the loudness and suddenness of hearing her last name that startled her but it was also the anger she could practically feel coming from the adult who uttered her last name. 

“S-Sir?” Azalea couldn’t help her stutter as she looked wide-eyed at the Head Deputy who was looking furious at seeing her. The moment her last name was utter the whole room turn to look at the scene in front of them.

“What are you doing here!”

“I-I sign up for the runes club, sir,” Azalea informed him a little confused because… wasn’t it obvious? Why would she be in the club meeting if she didn’t want to be in the club? Or was that a rhetorical question?

“Get out!”

“Sir?” 

“I said get out! 

“B-but I thought everyone was welcome to join any club?” Azalea couldn’t help but ask. The longer the conversation went the less afraid she felt. 

“Get.Out.” 

Azalea went to open her mouth not sure what she wanted to say but for once she became self-aware of the situation and knew that it was best if she left. 

“Yes, sir,” Azalea agreed quietly and grabbed her bag which she had brought with her when she left her dorm to put her wallet in there and two bars in case she got hungry. 

She frowned as she walked down the hall, she didn’t understand what just happened and why the Head Deputy kicked her out when she had done nothing wrong but it wasn’t like she could do something about it so brooding over it would get her nowhere. 

She easily locked the hurt and anger she felt over the situation in the cage in the back of her mind where she easily shoved all of her unwanted emotions and pretended they were not there. 

“Potter.” Azalea paused just as she was about to turn the corner of the hall as her name was called, this time the voice sounded more controlled.

“Sir?” Azalea asked hesitantly as she turned around and stared at the Head Deputy.

“Do you have an interest in runes, Miss Potter?” 

“Yes, sir. I want to get a master's in runes.” Azalea was still looking wearily at the Professor even if he seemed to have calmed down and snapped out of whatever trance he was in. 

“I will only accept you in my club, Miss Potter, if you prove your worth.”

Azalea wanted to argue that no one else had to prove themselves to join the club. That anyone could join a club and that he was discriminating against her but instead she nodded her head and agreed, “Yes sir.”

She followed him and wondered why she was doing it. She could have just told Professor Richter that she had no interest in runes or that she didn’t want nor need to prove anything to him… but her pride didn’t allow her to back down. 

She would continue to stick with her delusion that it was her pride that drove her to her decision instead of the desire to gain his approval. It was a weakness of her, always wanting to get the approval of those around her. It had started when she was very young with her parents and Moony and Padfoot. She wanted to make them proud because maybe that would make them pay more attention to her but that never really happened. 

“Beat everyone of them Miss Potter and you can join the club,” Professor Richter gestured to the new club members who were sitting ready to play the game the older students had just explained to them. 

Azalea gulped as she looked at the nine students in front of her and nodded, “Yes, sir.” 

She sat against the first boy that Professor Richter gestured to and took a deep breath trying not to feel so nervous. Every member of the club was paying attention to Azalea and her opponents as they played even if they tried not to be obvious about it. There were quiet murmurs going around the room as she kept on rising and moving to the next opponent, winning every game. 

It wasn’t just Azalea who was nervous, her opponents were too. She didn’t blame them since Professor Richter kept on circling around their tables like a vulture, just looking for a weakness.

When she sat in front of her last opponent she knew she had to be more careful. Unlike the other boys before him, the boy in front of her did not appear nervous. He was actually looking like he was calculating her, sizing her up to see how much of a threat she was to him. She was sure she had seen him before, not only around the school but also in her welcoming group on their first day in school, his black hair and dark eyes that reminded her of a black abyss were hard to forget.

He was intimidating but instead of cowering she straightened up and met him head-on. She tried to think about a quote she may have read that could give her courage but at the moment she was coming up blank. It was a habit of hers, she likes to write down quotes from books she reads or she hears somewhere because they motivated her. 

As they speedily put cards down and moved fast to grab the pairs that went together they stole glances at each other. The boy narrowed his eyes as the game continued on and Azalea couldn’t help but feel the edge of her lip twitch upward, wanting to smile but not daring to. 

Despite the circumstances, Azalea was having fun. The other boys she had played against had not challenged her. But the boy in front of her was a challenge, someone who seemed to know runes almost as good as her.  _ Almost _ being the keyword because Azalea knew (though she wasn’t exactly sure how she knew) that the boy didn’t hold the same passion she held for runes. The boy knew them but it felt forced -like someone had forced him to study runes instead of going out of his way to study them as Azalea had done. 

“Welcome to the runes club, Miss Potter.” Professor Richter could not have sounded any less unhappy than he already did -even if he tried- when he uttered those words.

“Thank you, sir.” Azalea could not celebrate her victory because she did not feel truly welcome in the club. Maybe she would have made some friends, some students were given her encouraging smiles, but since Professor Richter (the sponsor of the club) did not like her the others didn’t want to get anywhere near her in case the Head Deputy started picking on them too.

Thankfully Finn Meyer called the club meeting to an end and Azalea was quick to make an exit. The boy who had been her only challenge had stormed out in obvious anger and it saddened her because she would have really liked to have become his friend. It was as she turned the corner at the end of the hall that she remembered a quote one of her primary teachers liked, “Courage is grace under pressure.”

As she headed toward the village to meet up with her friends she thought the quote quite fitted the situation. 

* * *

  
  


“S-she is w-what!” Azalea choked out on her drink as she and Audree sat opposite each other in a cozy restaurant while waiting for Alice and Aerin.

They had decided to meet up downtown since they were all going to be there, at least Audree, Alice, and Aerin because they started their volunteering work on the first day of club meetings and Azalea promised to come and meet them so they could eat together since she had a gap between her clubs. 

Arwen, Savannah, and Yana were all busy with their own clubs so they were not able to meet. The four girls had decided that after eating they would go shopping for stuffed animals for the triplets even if Arwen wasn’t with them and Azalea would put them in their dorm when she headed back to the castle. 

Azalea had met with Audree first at the restaurant and Audree finally got to telling Azalea exactly who Carina the vampire girl Azalea had befriended (because Audree knew the vampire had taken a liking more to Azalea than herself) really was. Their conversation was what led to the current situation where Azalea choked on her drink.

“I sat next to a princess! You let me approach a princess! Why didn’t you stop me?” Azalea squeaks, looking horrified. “I don’t know the protocol on how to greet a princess! I have never interacted with royalty but I know that you definitely don’t just approach them…”

As Azalea continues to moan and rant and panic, Audree doesn’t feel sorry about the amusement she gets from seeing her friend drive herself up the wall. After making her panic before, she thinks it's only fair to let Azalea sweat over the situation before she calms her down.

“Azalea, Azalea!” Audree calls the attention of her friend, finally taking pity on her. “I don’t think you offended Carina… I actually think Carina has taken a liking to you because you decided to approach her when everyone else didn’t.” Audree had thought more about what had happened after she left the culture club and the more she reflected on what happened the more sure she was that Carina had taken an instant liking to Azalea.

Audree could only imagine what it must be for Carina to be a vampire and a princess. It would intimidate a lot of their peers, Audree included, and it had taken Azalea -who had only seen a lonely girl- for Audree to realize that everyone deserved to have friends -even intimidating vampire princesses. It made Audree appreciate Azalea’s cluelessness because she was able to see behind people’s titles and reputations. 

“We share arithmancy class together and I told her we could sit together but what am I supposed to do now? How do you greet royalty? Should I bow?” Azalea gave her a wide eye look with her cheek flush pink that made Audree want to pinch her cheeks. 

“I think you should treat her just normally, just like you did today,” Audree advised and Azalea looked uncertain at her suggestion but sighed at the end before she sits up from her slouch position and pales a bit.

“I told her I would introduce her to you guys! Aerin is going to kill me!” Azalea moans dramatically before letting her hit fall on the table with a ‘thump’. 

“Oh... she is going to kill you first before she calms down and resurrects you,” Audree admits, padding Azalea’s head sympathetically.

Aerin had taken on the role of fussing over Azalea in their group and all of their friends could understand why, Azalea was very sweet and kind but somehow she would always find herself in a situation. Like confronting Madelyn Nieminen, or joining the werewolf club that was full of temperamental werewolves, or how she pissed off Adele the first day of exams, and most recently befriending a vampire princess. At the rate Azalea was going, Audree was sure Aerin was going to get grey hair at age 11.

None of them knew about the incubus she had befriended nor about her recent standoff with the Head Deputy… fortunately for Aerin’s health.

Before they could continue their conversation Aerin and Alice approach their table. Audree thought it was like Aerin could smell the trouble coming from Azalea a mile away which was why she asked what had happened immediately. Audree was happy to lean back and watch as Azalea pouted as she got scolded by her sister and as Alice only gap at their friend after hearing what happened during their culture club… at least until Aerin turn to Audree and started scolding her too which made Audree pout right alongside Azalea.

As the youngest of the three Audree was often scolded by her older sisters, Aerin more so than Arwen, so it was nice that at least she had a partner in crime this time. 

* * *

Azalea was dreading the werewolf meeting. After the day she had, she wanted nothing more than to slip under her bed covers, hug her stuffed animals, and sleep. 

Azalea wasn’t oblivious. No matter what her friends thought, she wasn’t oblivious. She had grown thick skin though -figuratively speaking of course! Accepting that she was always going to be second best to her sister and that she was never going to be her parent’s priority had toughened her. 

Unlike Heather who would go crying to their mother after getting a scraped knee, Azalea would take care of it on her own. Unlike Heather who would seek the comfort of their parents after having a nightmare, Azalea would take cover under her bed convincing herself that no one would get her there. Unlike Heather who would come crying to their mother about a kid pushing her down at school (when she still attended school), Azalea would get up again, brush the dirt away, compliment the bully, and give a smile before leaving. 

She had learned that when bullies did not get a reaction (or the expected reaction) from their victims they would lose interest and move on. Some even searched her out to talk to her, her apparent kindness drew people in apparently. That is why she learned that those who lash out, the bullies, were in pain and they wanted others to feel the same pain they were feeling too. 

One girl had money problems at home and before someone could bully her about her obvious poverty the girl decided she would bully the others instead so they would be scared of her and no one would make fun of her. Another girl had an alcoholic dad at home who beat her mother up and would beat her too if her mother did not get in the way. There was even a boy who was a troublemaker because that was the only way his parents would pay attention, otherwise, they were too busy working. 

Her experience with bullies taught her a lot and that is why she was hoping Professor Richter’s bullying would go away in time. Any other girl would have probably burst into tears at the treatment at the hands of the Head Deputy but Azalea had dealt with people like that before. So she would not rise up and give him a reaction, or at least the reaction he would expect. 

But that wasn’t the point, the point was that she was not oblivious. She knew Professor Richter did not like her, she knew Madelyn Nieminen did not like her from the very beginning either before they were even introduced, and she knew Kayle and Adele didn’t like her either for some unknown reason. She also knew that the rest of the werewolves were not going to like that she was going to be there when it was supposedly a club for werewolves only. 

She had thick skin and could pretend that cruel and cold words did not hurt her but she was only human, only an eleven-year-old girl, and no matter how she pretended to not be affected -she was. She did not want to go to the werewolf meeting to get hurtful words thrown at her, her heart had taken enough hits today and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to shove her emotions at the back of her mind as she did in runes club. 

But she wasn’t one to back down. If she did what she wanted to do -which was to hide under her blanket from the rest of the word- she would miss the werewolf club meeting and she knew she would not be welcome in future meetings no matter what. 

So she took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and calmed her mind before she stepped into the meeting room. She was cutting it close to the meeting time but she still made it with two meets to spare so technically she was not late. 

“Hey, take a seat at the very front among the rest of the first years, alright.” An older girl pointed towards the front, giving her a warm and friendly smile that put Azalea at ease.

Azalea took the last available chair in the first row that only held first-year students. Azalea estimated that there were at least thirty of them. She immediately saw the older boy who she argued to sign up for the club standing in front of the podium. Unlike the other club meetings, this one was much larger with many more students filling the room, it was incredible to think that they were all werewolves.

“Alright, listen up everyone. I am Richard Jackson -the alpha for the next two years before it's the turn of someone else. Our sponsor, Professor Lopez, rarely attends meetings which means this club is unofficially run by students. For new members, this means that you will be paired with an older member who will take the role of your mentor. Now, when I call your name, come up here so you can be paired off with an older werewolf… Dominik Bosko!”

A nervous blond boy made his way towards the platform and there was no uncertain pause before older students were volunteering to mentor the younger boy. Azalea thought it was nice for older students to take a younger student under their wing and no one felt left out because there was always a good number of students who quickly offered themselves. 

Azalea did not recognize many of them… actually, she didn’t recognize any of them except Adele, Kaylee, and Adrianna. One by one they were all called and once they were paired up they would go sit with their mentor instead of returning to their seat. Lucas Gonzales, a timid dark-haired boy, went before her name was called -the last student to be called.

“She is not a werewolf!”

“What is she doing here!” Among the many who raised their hand and called out volunteering to take her in, they were able to hear the two voices that unsurprisingly belonged to Kaylee and Adele. 

Their outburst made everyone paused, uncertain about what was going on. Spectators were watching from the platform where Azalea and Richard stood to where Kaylee and Adele were standing up even though their mentors were trying to pull them down.

“Is it true? Is she not a werewolf?” A boy towards the back called out.

“It’s true, Azalea Potter is not a born werewolf nor was she bitten,” Richard started to explain only to be cut off by the noise of the room rising up as many called out outrage by what they were hearing. Azalea slightly fidgeted in her spot and couldn’t help but move just a bit closer to Richard… something which he unfortunately noticed.

“Enough!” Richard called out in a voice that carried across the room and made everyone go silent immediately. “Azalea Potter may not be a werewolf in the normal sense but she is the cub of Remus Lupin- _ Black _ , which I am sure everyone knows is a werewolf.”

Richard knew that if he said Remus Lupin, everyone would know who he was talking about since that is how Mr. Lupin introduced himself in the werewolf community instead of Lupin-Black. But by adding emphasis on the Black last name it would remind everyone that they were not only talking about Remus Lupin but also Sirius Black. A nobleman from British who not only had money and resources at his fingertips but who was also fighting for their rights in the British Isle. It wouldn't do well to turn their daughter away.

He would have to keep a close eye on Kaylee Dabrowski and Adele Huber though. Dabrowski was the granddaughter of the Poland representative in the I.C.W. which probably made her think she was going to be the leader of her year among werewolves with Huber, no doubt, as her right hand since Huber came from a better-off werewolf family in Germany. But they had not calculated Azalea Potter into the equation and now it was going to be a battle to see who would come out as the winner and leader of their generation. 

“But she is not a werewolf!” Adele Huber whined like a spoiled child and Richard felt for her mentor.

“What’s the proof?” Kayle Dabrowski demanded to know and Richard had to applaud her cunning. At least she knew going the route Adele Huber was going would not get her anywhere but if she could disproof Azalea’s claim then Azalea would get kick out.

“She doesn’t have to have the curse in order to be considered a werewolf. You know there are some biological children from werewolf parents who never turn but they are still accepted in our community as werewolves.” Amanda Kurt explained to Adele Huber before Richard could talk.

“You mean besides his scent on her?” Richard asked pointedly, addressing Kayle Dabrowski. Azalea Potter carried the scent of Remus Lupin’s werewolf, it was pretty strong and he was sure that it would not disappear any time soon. 

“Yes,” the girl lifted her chin up stubbornly, not giving up. 

“Um, I have a picture,” Azalea spoke timidly beside him, reminding Richard of her presence. He wasn’t the only one who had overlooked her during the discussion going on either. 

“Can you show me,” Richard stated more than asked. 

Azalea stumbled a bit due to being nervous but she got her wallet out and pulled out a small picture she had in one of the pockets and gave it to him. Richard paused momentarily as he got a look at the picture, he didn’t know what he expected but a younger Azalea sitting on a couch cuddling to Remus Lupin’s side while he read her a Dr. Suess book and she padded absentmindedly the head of a large black dog’s head on her lap was not it. Remus Lupin was recognizable easily enough and so was Sirius Black even though he was in his animagus form in that picture. 

“Who would like to confirm?” Richard asked so there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind and quickly five fifth-year students from around the room came down to see the picture. Just like him, they paused at the unexpected picture before nodding with acceptance.

“Do you agree Azalea Potter is Remus Lupin-Black’s cub?” Richard asked the five witnesses after returning the picture to Azalea. 

“We do,” the five witnesses agree as one and return to their seat. 

“Any other objections?” Richard asked in courtesy, knowing that there wouldn't’ be any. “Now, about Azalea Potter’s mentor…” before he could even finish his sentence there were students who quickly raised their hand and volunteered themselves. “...I will take her under my wing.”

“Shut It!” Richard shouted when disagreement quickly escalated up as many disagree with his actions. “There isn’t a rule that states the student leader of the club can’t mentor a new member if he or she desires to.” That was true enough, there was a rule that stated if an older student was mentoring someone already then they could not volunteer to mentor someone else but since Richard was not mentoring anyone at the moment he could decide to take the first-year under his wing. Not only did he know it but so did everyone else so they knew they couldn’t complain. 

“Take a seat at the front to wait for me, alright,” Richard told Azalea quietly and when she gave him a nod in understanding he turned to address the rest of the club. “Now, in our first meeting, we do some activities to welcome first years…” 

Richard continued to talk but Azalea only listened with half an ear as she was still wondering about what had just happened. Truthfully, she was feeling relief that the members seemed to have accepted her so easily. The meeting was a bit more formal than she expected but there was an easy-going atmosphere in the room. The one thing that was clear to Azalea was to stay away from Kayle and Adele from now on. 

“Alright, ready to participate?” Richard asked her as he left the stage and everyone started moving around vanishing chairs and making space. 

“Ah, yeah,” Azalea answered unsure about what exactly they were going to do. Together they move towards one side of the room that the other first years with their mentors were moving towards too. Azalea was amazed that right in front of her eyes the room was changed to look completely different, not only was it expanded but older students also conjured inflatable obstacle courses. 

“Just try your best, alright? Older students will go first, we will go through the whole thing so you can see how it's done and once I make my way towards you and give you a high-five you get to start the course yourself. The first team to finish the course wins but don’t worry about winning alright, what’s important is that you have fun -so no pressure,” Richard explained to her and she was relieved that he didn’t care if they won or not. Physical activities were not her strong points after all.

“Okay, observe how you do the course, wait until you give me a high-five, and have fun,” Azalea repeated back to him seriously. Just because he didn’t mind losing and she wasn’t good at physical activities didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try her best. 

“Right,” Richard confirmed with an amused smile on his face. 

Azalea watched as he along with the rest of the other mentors lined up at the starting line. Those who were not involved were playing bets and cheering. When a trumpet sound went off Azalea could only stare wide-eyed as the older students ran as fast as they could towards the courses, pushing each other roughly. Azalea knew that Richard had said not to worry about winning -but as she saw students pulling other students’ feet, pushing them to the side, and some even kicking others down as they climbed up -she wasn’t so sure he was right. 

The first years that were all around her seemed to vibrate with nervousness and eagerness. Azalea was just filled with dread. That feeling on the pit of her stomach only got worse when Richard clearly pulled out from the group, leaving the rest in his dust because she knew that would mean she would be the first first-year to start the course and all eyes would be on her. It also meant that if they didn’t win it would be her fault because Richard would give her plenty of a head start but if she used it to her advantage or not -was up to her. 

When Richard gave her a sloppy high-five she took off as fast as her short legs could take her. He would give it to her, she was definitely fast despite her small stature. “You can do it Azalea!” He cheered her on after he was not panting anymore and shut his mouth immediately when all his scream did was startle her into losing her footing and as a result, she rolled down like a small dumpling rolling down a hill instead of sliding down carefully. Due to his werewolf hearing, he was able to hear the squeak of surprise that left her. 

Disoriented, she scrambled to get up on her feet again and practically threw herself into the ball pit that was deeper than it looked. It did not surprise him that she was quickly swallowed by the plastic balls and he tried not to laugh as she made a mess of herself to get out, the others had no such restraint. 

It did not escape his notice that other first years were quickly cutting the distance between Azalea and themselves but there was a particular first year that was pulling himself away from the first-year group, Lucas Gonzales from Argentina, if he was not mistaken. 

It did not surprise him that first-year boy, Lucas, eventually caught up to Azalea just as she finished the inflatable obstacle courses and all they had left to do was run to make it to the finish line. Richard was impressed that Azalea was able to keep up with a werewolf as they both ran as fast as they could towards the finish line. He had tried to give Azalea as much of a head start as possible since he knew that she was at a disadvantage because she did not have the extra strength and endurance that werewolves had so he didn’t expect her to win or even come close to first place but yet she came in second place. 

He made his way towards Azalea when she crossed the finish line and he waited for her to catch her breath but it took longer than he expected. The girl was clearly out of shape. 

“Can I just stay here?” Azalea got out between gasps for breath. 

“No,” Richard answered her with a roll of eyes. He could not believe that they had been so out of shape just like the rest of the first years. It seemed so long ago that they forgot that all of them started the same way. It was through the harsh training that the professors put them through that built up their stamina. 

Eventually, Azalea got up (pouting of course) and they walked around so that Richard could introduce her to other werewolves, mostly his close friends so that she knew she could ask them for help if the need ever arose. He knew everyone in the room though since as the leader of the club it was his job to know every member but he didn’t want to overwhelm her on her first day. 

During the first meeting, they always used the activity of going through obstacles as teams so that the first year and their mentor could bond. They later would just socialize as they put the room back together. The rest of the meetings were like that actually, the club would use its meeting time to socialize with one another or if a problem had to be brought to the whole club. 

“See you next weekend brat,” Richard told his charge as he ruffled her hair playfully. They seemed to just click which made it easier on them, Richard was fond of the little cub because she was so awkwardly adorable. She reminded him of the little sister he never had.

“See ya!” Azalea cheerfully waved at him, leaving the meeting room in high spirits. Richard wouldn't’ be leaving until everyone else had left since he was the head of the club so he sent her off first since she didn’t have to wait along with him.

The werewolf club was turning out to be one of her favorite clubs. She thought that would have been runes but that was a bust and while the culture club was very informative and nice, it wasn’t as fun as the werewolf club. Her muscles were probably going to hurt tomorrow but nothing could drop the smile from her face.

It was with that happy smile that she called her sister at night after taking a quick shower without having eaten anything yet. She planned on eating some snacks she had to fill her stomach and it made her realize that lately, she was surviving out of snacks instead of eating real healthy food. She made a mental note to try to eat better in the future when her sister answered the mirror call and her face appeared in the mirror. 

“Heather! Hey, how were your flying lessons today?” Azalea asks, remembering that her sister mentioned her flying lessons the night before.

“Full of drama!” Heather moans dramatically, eager to tell Azalea all about it. “We were paired off with the Slytherins -again! I swear I don’t understand what professors are thinking when they paired us with Slytherins! Malfoy was being an arrogant toe-rag, bragging about his flying skills but Madam Hooch had to correct his grip which I thought served him right. Did I tell you that Neville received a remembrall Tuesday at breakfast?”

“Yep, you mentioned it to me.” Azalea remembered because Heather told her she would ask their parents for one. 

“Well, during our flying lesson Neville lost control of his broom and sprain his wrist so Madam Hooch took him to the infirmary but he dropped his remembrall which no one saw until Malfoy picked it up and insulted Neville. Ron, of course, told Malfoy to give it back but Malfoy refused to do so and flew up with his broom saying he was going to leave it up in a tree for Neville to find! And you won’t believe it Azalea, the other Gryffindors were looking at me like they expected me to fly up with my broom and confront Malfoy! But I am terrified of heights, I am not the flyer in the family, that is you! I would total punch him in the face but on solid ground, there was no way I would fly up in the air!” Azalea could only wait for her sister to calm down and stop moving the mirror all around so that the image could focus again. 

“So what happened?” Azalea asked to get her sister to move on from the topic that was agitating her.

“Since I refused to rise to the bait, Ron decided to confront Malfoy up in the air! We both know Ron has some experience flying on brooms at the Burrow so I wasn’t too worried but Malfoy decided to throw Neville’s remembrall to the ground, telling Ron if he wanted it so bad to catch it! Ron is alright on a broom but he is not skilled enough to pull off something like that so not only did Neville’s remembrall break but Ron crashed on the ground and dislocated his shoulder!”

“Oh, no! What happened next?”

“Professor McGonagall caught the whole thing and Ron was given detention for tomorrow night, can you believe it! I thought that was unfair since Ron was only trying to get Neville’s remembrall back, but at least Malfoy got detention for the rest of the week so it wasn’t so bad. Professor McGonagall is actually making Malfoy write an apology letter to Neville and she is sending a letter to Lord and Lady Malfoy to let them know of the accident since Malfoy has to pay for the remembrall cause apparently remembralls are not easy to find and the one given to Neville was a family heirloom from his mother’s side, did you know?”

“I knew that remembralls are hard to get by but I didn’t know Neville’s remembrall was a family heirloom. Poor Neville he must be devastated,” Azalea frowned, just imagining Neville’s reaction to hearing a family heirloom was broken on his watch, he was probably panicking about his grandmother’s reaction. She made a mental note to write him a letter soon. She had been communicating with him but since she had to send the letter to her parents first and then they had to post it for her with an owl it took time to communicate back and forth with him.

“I guess,” Heather shrugged her shoulders, not really understanding how it would affect Neville.

“Heather, you have spent some time with him, right?” Azalea asked with a suspicious look on her face.

“Well, I see him around!” Heather defended herself.

“Heather, he is our godbrother… at least spare 10 minutes of your day to ask him how he is doing,” Azalea pleaded with her sister.

“Argh, alright,” Heather sounded like Azalea was asking her to waste 10 years of her life instead of 10 minutes of her day but she accepted Azalea’s request so Azalea was going to take it as a win and leave the matter alone for now.

“You know it’s so unfair that dad didn’t give me a family heirloom, I swear everyone else has something -even Neville was given something!” Heather whined as she changed the subject. “I am asking dad for the Potter invisibility cloak for Christmas! I deserve to have it, don’t I? Everyone else was given something from their family, and yet dad didn’t give me anything!” 

Azalea could only listen as she put her poker face on, not wanting to give away the fact that their dad had given Azalea the invisibility cloak. “You know that is not true, dad gave you the marauder map and he gave us each a communication mirror so we could talk to one another,” Azalea defended their dad.

“But I want the invisibility cloak! The map is wicked but I deserve to have the family invisibility cloak too...” Heather continued to whine and Azalea used her developed skill of half-listening to her sister while the other half of her mind traveled from one thought to another. She was even able to compose a full letter to Neville in her mind while her sister continued to whine. 

“My roommates? They should be arriving soon since it’s past dinner time,” Azalea answered her sister’s question about her roommates. 

“So how are they? Do you get along?” Heather asked and because Azalea had such a turmoil day and because she was glad for the change of subject she didn’t filter her words like she usually would when talking about anything related to her school.

“They are great! Today was the first weekend of clubs so we didn’t spend much time together. I had my first club, which was a culture club, with Audree so I spent part of the morning with her but then we went our separate ways. I met with Alice, Audree, and Aerin for lunch downtown, which is a lot like Hogsmeade except much bigger. They all signed up for community service which was why they were downtown and since I had some time in between my clubs I was able to meet with them. 

“I haven’t seen Arwen all day since morning because she had her own clubs to attend to and didn't have time to meet with the rest of us to eat lunch. I just arrived from the werewolf club and I thought I would find them in the dorm since I am the one with the latest club but they may have gone to get dinner. But I really like them, Heather, Arwen is super smart so we always debate over scholarly subjects. Aerin loves to mother hen me for some reason which I have to admit I like, Audree is like my partner in crime, and Alice is somewhere between Aerin and Audree,” Azalea practically gushed about her roommates. 

“They seemed pretty great,” Heather spoke quietly. “Have you made other friends?”

“Yeah, there is Yana who I have mentioned before. She is on the same floor as me but in another dorm so we see each other frequently. Yana is in the same dorm as Savannah who is another of my friends, usually, we pick a place to eat so we can get together. I actually share at least one class with each of them. Today I actually made a few friends, a girl named Carina, and we promise to get together in the future so I can introduce her to my other friends. I also went to the werewolf club that I mentioned and I actually got a mentor -his name is Richard Jackson and he introduced me to many of his friends who are all older students though, but they all seemed pretty friendly.”

“That’s just great Azalea, just great! I am glad you are making so many friends already!” Azalea realized her mistake too late, she had made sure to keep her answers vague before when her sister asked about her roommates and her life at school because she knew Heather got jealous easily. 

“But you have probably plenty of more friends, right Heather,” Azalea tried to deflect the attention away from her, trying to salvage the situation.

“Who?!” Heather demanded to know, tears already rolling down her cheeks. 

“You already know Susan, Hannah, Ron, Neville, Millicent, and Ernie... Didn’t you also mention you met more of them at your birthday party? I think you said you met Trevor, Anthony Goldstein, Lavender Brown, and the Patil twins...?” Azalea trailed off as she didn’t completely remember who her sister had mentioned. 

“Millicent is in Slytherin and Ernie, Susan, and Hannah are in Hufflepuff so it’s hard to spend time with them plus I thought Susan and Hannah were my friends but they don’t make an effort to spend time with me! Neville and I don’t have anything in common so that only leaves Ron! Trevor and Anthony are both in Ravenclaw and I barely know them so we are not friends. Lavender and Parvati, one of the Patil twins, seem to just click so I feel like a third wheel when I hang out with them!” By the end of her speech, Heather had crocodile tears running down her face. 

“Well, what about your other roommates?” Azalea asked desperately.

“The only one left is Hermione Granger and she is a nightmare. She spends all of her time in the library and doesn’t have any friends because she is a bossy know-it-all! I don’t want to be associated with her!” 

Honestly, Azalea could understand where Heather was coming from. Hogwarts didn’t have a lot of students each year and they were split even further into four houses making it difficult for someone to find a friend that clicked with their personality. Why it was easier in the academy to find friends was because there were so many students and they were cluster together by year so a person was able to at least find a person that would click with their personality and find a friend. 

But on the other hand, Azalea didn’t understand why her sister was having such a hard time finding friends. If anything, Azalea thought her sister would be surrounded by a large group of friends since Heather always seemed to have someone to hang out with when they were both home. That didn’t seem to be the case now that she was at Hogwarts though.

“I think you should just give it time Heather, I think it’s too soon for you to decide that you don’t fit with certain people. Get to know them and maybe you will realize that you have more in common than you realized,” Azalea suggested gently.

“But you already have a lot of friends! How come you had an easier time making friends when I haven’t! I am the outgoing one, I am the powerful one, I am the famous one, I am the Girl-Who-Lived! You are the introverted one! The one who spends all of her time reading in the dark and your only friend was Neville!” 

Azalea swallowed the lump that formed in her throat and told herself that Heather did not aim her words to hurt her. She shoved the hurt and anger she felt in that moment towards her sister at the back of her mind in the cage that got a lot of emotions shoved into today already. Once that was done she was able to breathe more calmly and talk normally. 

“You have fewer people to find a friend from, Heather. There are only 35 first years counting yourself and out of the 35, you have to find a friend among 7 first years because there are 8 of you in Gryffindor counting yourself… Heather, there are about 280 first years in my school with 29 girls alone on my floor so it’s easier for me to find friends.” Azalea was not giving herself enough credit. She didn’t make friends so easily because there were so many to choose from but because she had a great personality but her self-esteem was so low that she would never believe that… not any time soon, anyway.

“I guess you’re right,” Heather admitted, having stopped crying and feeling better after Azalea’s words, her sister always knew what to tell her to make her feel better. “I will talk to you tomorrow, alright?” Heather asked with a yawn since back in Scotland it was almost 11:00 P.M. 

“Yeah, talk to you tomorrow,” Azalea agreed and sighed in relief when the mirror went back to normal. Her good mood from the werewolf club was completely subdued by the end of her conversation with her sister. 

“Azalea there you are!” Aerin exclaimed in relief when she appeared in her dorm. 

“Yeah, why? Did something happen?” Azalea asked confused and not alarm since Alice was eating some food she brought on the table they had, Arwen was sitting at her desk working on what she could only assume was homework while eating in between writing things down, Aerin was sitting up in her bed drying her hair with a towel and had her own plate next to her, and she knew Audree was taking a shower at the moment because she heard the shower when she made her way towards the dorm. 

“Here this is yours, we decided on Mexican food today so got you some tacos,” Alice told Azalea, gesturing to the bag containing a plate of delicious warm food. It definitely lifted Azalea’s spirits. 

“Thanks! I am starving,” Azalea commented as she took a seat and quickly unpack her food. 

“We didn’t think you would get anything to eat since the werewolf club meeting ended up so close to 7 and we know that you always come back to the dorm at seven -for whatever reason- so we decided to pass by a Mexican restaurant and get food to go so we could all eat in the dorm,” Alice explained. Alice did not outright ask the question but the curiosity was still there, after all, her friends had noticed her strange behavior of coming to the dorm around seven and going to her closet for twenty minutes maximum before she came out. She would either stay in the dorm to work on homework and eat some snacks to fill her up or she would head to the library where the rest of them were. 

“...My dad and godfather had a pair of communication mirrors when they were in school and my dad decided to give them to my sister and me to keep in touch. Since there is a three-hour difference between here to Scotland I have to talk to my sister at seven because it would be 10 at Hogwarts and she can’t stay up too late for me,” Azalea finally admitted.

“Communication mirrors are cool!” Alice commented enthusiastically. 

“Not to mention rare,” Arwen added, momentarily looking up from her work before going back to whatever she was doing. 

“It’s nice that you keep in touch with your sister, you must be very close,” Aerin simply stated from her bed. 

“Um, yeah, so anyway why were you worried about me?” Azalea asked, changing the subject.

“Cause she thought you were eaten by the werewolves beasts and all that we would get back would be your bones,” Arwen told her drily, not even looking up this time from her work. Azalea knew Arwen was joking and wasn’t insulting the werewolves so she didn’t feel offended by her remark about werewolves, she wasn’t sure other werewolves would be okay with her words though.

“I did not! I was just concerned that she had not eaten,” Aerin defended herself with a lame excuse that everyone knew was a lie, even Azalea. 

“Really, cause I remember you thinking they had eaten Azalea,” Alice teased Aerin.

“All of you need to clean your ears, obviously,” Aerin huff.

“Obviously,” Arwen drawl, hiding a snicker. 

“The werewolves were great,” Azalea commented before the two sisters could start bickering. “They have a mentor system so all new members get paired up with an older member who will mentor them.”

“Really?” Alice asked surprise and she wasn’t the only one.

“Yeah, I thought it was pretty wicked. I was the last one to get called up but before I could get paired up Kayle and Adele yell that I wasn’t a werewolf so what was I doing there-”

“Bitches,” Alice murmured, making Azalea choke on her words and stop telling them what happened. 

“Alice!” Aerin exclaimed aghast and even Arwen was ogling Alice like she was seeing her for the first time.

“What it’s true!” Alice defended herself, not looking repented at all. 

“She got you there,” Arwen pointed out slyly to Aerin, always wanting to get a rise from her older sister.

“But everything was solved quickly because my uncle is a werewolf and he calls me cub so apparently that makes it okay,” Azalea speaks loudly and hurriedly to avoid a fight to break out between Arwen and Aerin. 

“So what else did you do?” Alice asked, also wanting to avoid having to witness a confrontation between sisters. 

“We did an obstacle course as a bonding experience with our mentors. They cleared out the room, expanded it, and made an inflatable obstacle course that the older students went first and when our mentors reached us and gave us a high-five we were able to start the course ourselves. The first team to finish won,” Azalea explained, smiling as she remembered the fun she had. 

“Did you win?” Arwen asked curiously.

“No, I came in second place.”

“Who is your mentor?” Aerin asked as she finished brushing her hair and was midway finished with braiding it. 

“Richard Jackson, he is actually the club leader. After we were done with the obstacle course we kind of just socialized. Richard introduced me to some of his friends and said if I needed help I could always go to them if I couldn’t find him,” Azalea explained. 

“Cool,” Arwen commented, not making a fuss.

“That’s very nice of them.”

“That’s nice of them.” 

Even though they didn’t make a big deal, all three of them were relieved to hear that Azalea had some form of backup if she ever needed it. If the older students intervene to help Azalea other older students would think that Azalea was open game for them to bully too but at least they knew that if Azalea found herself in real trouble she had more backup besides themselves. It was a double edge sword but at least Azalea had a sword to protect herself when she had nothing before. 

“How was your day Arwen, did you like your clubs?” Azalea asked her friend who she had not seen all day since morning as she ate half of her tacos. 

“It was very fascinating! I had mock trial first and I’m actually the defendant ...” Arwen lits up as she speaks about her first club and continues on with details about her day. Azalea happily listened to her and even Aerin and Alice pay attention since the case was actually interesting. It was about a witch who was being charged with helping a ring that was well known for Veela trafficking when she was first charged with possessing illegal potion ingredients that only sold in the Black Market but the ball started rolling into a bigger mess from there.

At some point, Audree joined them and it was almost comical how they would eat quietly as they listened to Arwen explain the imaginary situation she found herself in with wide eyes and how they would gasp in shock in the right places and exclaim in other parts. Azalea had to admit that for a day that had its ups and downs like a rollercoaster -it wasn’t a bad way to end it.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't know when I will post next, can't make any promises.


End file.
